It was really easy. The Paycheck Protection Program wasn’t administered by the government directly. Instead, it authorized banks and financial institutions to issue PPP loans using government money. These institutions were told they wouldn’t be found at fault if they gave money to a fraudulent applicant. So they were authorized to give out money that wasn’t theirs and couldn’t be found at fault even if they gave it to a fraudster. There was zero reason to check if the application was real or filled with fake information. It’s estimated that, of the 21 million PPP loans issued, 10% were fraudulent.