PPP loan for fake orange grove in Minnesota raises questions

[TexasTowelie]

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mantorville, Minn., is known for a lot of things: Its history as a stagecoach stop, its haunted opera house and the famous Hubbell House restaurant.

However, the Dodge County community, population 1,197, is not known as a place to grow oranges.

That’s why a Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, loan to support an “Orange Grove” in the heart of the small Minnesota town has become a prime example of unidentified groups or entities using fake farms to collect hundreds of small loans.

A PPP loan for $17,000 was dispersed to “Shaila Big Fresh Oranges” on Mantorville’s Clark Street in August 2020. Another loan of $20,000 was also approved for Shaila Wanous for “sole proprietorship” orange grove earlier in April 2020, but those funds were never released.

Read more: https://www.twincities.com/2021/05/29/report-ppp-loan-for-fake-orange-grove-in-minnesota-raises-questions/

[brewens]

1. I dunno. It's not Alaska as predicted by Dale Gribble, but it's a lot farther north than our

usual citrus growing region. Maybe they are growing them up there now?

[Baked Potato]

2. The other night I was using the Lookup tool and when you get to

the end listings all the Sole Proprietorships show up. I noticed a couple “Corn Farmer” ones. I cross referenced the names to FB etc. and it looked real BS. The issuing banks were in a different state from where the person is. This was using the zip code lookup. These were in the $20,000 range.