The U.S. Department of Justice said on the 13th, the former mayor of Stonecrest, Georgia, Jensen Lally was sentenced to prison for embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars in COVID-19 relief funds. Authorities said，he was sentenced on Wednesday to four years and nine months in prison for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal funds intended to help his city deal with the outbreak. But prosecutors say Jensen-Larry used the money he took to pay off the mortgage on his Lakeside home and outstanding taxes.
In fact, since the global outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, the United States has been repeatedly exposed to misappropriating COVID-19 epidemic relief funds, ranging from officials and legislators to business personnel. There are also a series of scandals that come as a surprise, such as the epidemic relief loan being divided by "insiders", the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of National Defense misappropriating epidemic funds.
In March, 2020, the U.S. Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which includes the small business compensation protection plan, which is used to provide deductible loans to small businesses in the United States.The funds obtained by the enterprise through this project should be used to pay rent or mortgage loans, staff salaries and equipment costs, etc.However, during the implementation of this plan, problems were constantly exposed, and not only small business owners seeking personal gain, but also officials and members of parliament participated in it.Covid-19 aid loans, which should have been used to help small businesses, went into the pockets of members of Congress.Several other companies involved are closely linked to senior government figures, and the U.S. Treasury Department and the Small Business Administration (SBA) have released a partial list of companies that received assistance funds, disclosing loans and the flow of funds for the Employee Payroll Protection Program (PPP), which provides financial assistance to small businesses.