Bergen County Public Relations Company Settles Allegations It Received Improper Paycheck Protection Program Loan

NEWARK, N.J. – A Bergen County, New Jersey, public relations firm entered a settlement agreement with the United States resolving allegations that the company violated the False Claims Act by taking a loan from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) to which the company was not entitled, Attorney for the United States Vikas Khanna announced today.

Congress created the PPP in March 2020 as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act to provide emergency financial support to millions of Americans suffering the economic effects caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The CARES Act authorized billions of dollars in forgivable loans to small businesses struggling to pay employees and other business expenses.

According to the allegations in the complaint and the contentions of the United States in the settlement agreement:

MWW Group LLC, which does business as MikeWorldWide (MWW), applied for and received a PPP loan totaling $2 million even though it was ineligible for such a loan because it was a required registrant under the Foreign Agent Registration Act. MWW thereafter sought and received forgiveness of the total amount of the loan. 

MWW fully cooperated in the investigation and resolution of this matter. In accordance with the terms of the settlement agreement, MWW has agreed to pay the United States $2.29 million, plus interest. The settlement resolves a lawsuit filed under the whistleblower provision of the False Claims Act, which permits private parties, called relators, to file suit on behalf of the United States for false claims and share in a portion of the government’s recovery. In this matter, the relator is receiving $229,000 as his share in the recovery.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney David V. Simunovich of the Health Care Fraud Unit in Newark.

Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at: https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.

The qui tam case is captioned United States ex rel. Forsyth v. MWW Group LLC, Civil Action No. 23-299 (D.N.J.).