evidence: In response to the COVID-19 crisis, Congress authorized historic levels of emergency funding for federal agencies to provide direct financial assistance to individuals, businesses, and state, local, and Tribal governments. The Justice Department’s efforts in this area have included the pursuit of cases involving improper payments under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which was enacted to provide loans guaranteed by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) to eligible small businesses for payroll, rent, utility payments, and other business-related costs. Over the last year, the department has resolved approximately 270 False Claims Act matters, recovering over $48.3 million in connection with improper PPP loans. The department has also pursued other pandemic related fraud, including schemes by health care providers to profit from the pandemic by billing for unnecessary tests and services. [...] Coyne Public Relations LLC paid $2.24 million to resolve allegations that it received a PPP loan even though it was ineligible for the loan because it was a required registrant under the Foreign Agent Registration Act. John Seasholtz and four agricultural companies he owns agreed to pay more than $600,000 to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act by improperly inflating the employee headcount on the companies’ PPP loan applications by impermissibly including non-employee contract workers who were, in fact, employed by other, unrelated entities. The companies also agreed to repay loan funds relating to the ineligible contractors, thereby relieving the SBA of liability for approximately $1.8 million in loan guarantees.