evidence: They came into their riches by participating in what experts say is the theft of as much as $80 billion — or about 10 percent — of the $800 billion handed out in a Covid relief plan known as the Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP. That’s on top of the $90 billion to $400 billion believed to have been stolen from the $900 billion Covid unemployment relief program — at least half taken by international fraudsters — as NBC News reported last year. And another $80 billion potentially pilfered from a separate Covid disaster relief program. [...] The looting of the Paycheck Protection Program worked differently — and it could be far more lucrative. The program authorized banks and other financial institutions to make government-backed loans to businesses, loans that were to be forgiven if the companies spent the money on business expenses. Nearly 10 million such loans have already been forgiven. Many of the loans-turned-grants were for millions of dollars, public records show. [...] Washington, D.C., resident Elias Eldabbagh, who appears to have no criminal record, was charged last summer with trying to steal $17 million from PPP and another program. According to his LinkedIn page, he earned a degree in computer engineering from California State University, Sacramento, and has worked in various technology jobs. Among the property prosecutors seized was a Tesla Model 3.