Jewish Voice For Peace COVID loan fraud settlement

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Anti-Zionist activist group Jewish Voice for Peace has agreed to pay $677,634 to settle allegations that it defrauded federal coronavirus pandemic financial loan programs by stating on applications that it was not a political or lobbying entity, the District of Columbia US Attorney’s Office and US Small Business Administration (SBA) announced.

JVP will be paying twice the amount it received for a $338,817 second-draw loan under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), created as part of the 2020 Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act to provide support to American citizens, businesses, and organizations suffering economic hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

While under the CARES Act, a nonprofit is not eligible for a second-draw loan if it is chiefly engaged in political or lobbying activities, JVP, a progressive Jewish activist group that advocates against Zionism and the State of Israel, certified in its loan application that it was not lobbying or “engaging in advocacy in areas such as public policy.”

The SBA and US Attorney’s Office said an investigation confirmed that JVP was primarily engaged in political activities. JVP reportedly contends that any alleged misstatements in its PPP loan application were inadvertent, and by settling, it avoids potentially paying three times the amount of the loan for allegedly violating the False Claims Act.

The settlement and federal investigation was the result of a whistle-blower complaint by the Zionist Advocacy Center, which said on Facebook Tuesday it was happy to announce that its “case against Jewish Voice for Peace was unsealed and settled.”