Terror recovery loans going unpaid in Ohio

9/19/2011

According to an analysis of more than 11,000 SBA loans provided to businesses that claimed to be 9/11 terror attack victims, approximately 30 percent have yet to send repayment, the Columbus Dispatch reports.

In total, $558 million was handed out by the government to businesses in states not directly involved in the September 11 attacks, such as Ohio.

More than 120 low-interest business loans were handed out to companies in Ohio that stated they suffered economic losses from the terrorist acts. However, those SBA loans have now gone bad and have to be written off.

Leslie Paige, spokeswoman for the Washington D.C.-based watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste, noted that the country's emergency crisis system is broken.

"It shows the lack of accountability," Paige told the Dispatch. "There's no official ethos to find the money and chase it."

The Houston Chronicle points to a 2006 U.S. Senate report that stated most terror recovery loans dispersed by the government were made without "adequate documentation" of whether the borrowers had actually suffered losses due to the attacks.