Soon after Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (“CARES Act”) in March 2020, the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) moved quickly to address potential COVID-19 related fraud. One area of early focus was the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), a program under the CARES Act that provides loans to small businesses to help pay employees. The Fraud Section set up a team devoted to PPP fraud and, within two months of the passage of the CARES Act, had charged several individuals.

Insolvency intersected with the UK government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic in an application to the High Court by the administrators of restaurant chain Carluccio’s. Considering the government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (the “Scheme”), the court held that: