The Justice Department announced that a New York City bookstore owned by the wife of Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon will pay nearly $1.5 million to settle allegations it improperly obtained pandemic aid.
Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, accused Nancy Bass Wyden of lying on a February 2021 application to get a $932,350 second-round pandemic loan for her bookstore, despite rules passed by Congress barring such loans to businesses controlled by lawmakers or their spouses.
Ron Wyden, the Senate Finance Committee’s top Democrat, voted in favor of the legislation two months earlier.
Pirro said in a statement that the program was meant to save jobs, “not to enrich those who aren’t eligible for taxpayer-funded relief, especially the wife of a U.S. Senator.”
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“No one gets a pass when it comes to defrauding the American taxpayer,” she added.
The Strand Bookstore told CNBC the mistake was “unintentional” and that its accountant and lender were unaware of the restriction.
The $1.5 million civil settlement resolves a whistleblower lawsuit under the False Claims Act. Blockquote Inc., which brought the case, will receive approximately $148,256 from the settlement.
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