Article by Roger Schlueter, MBA
The SBA Form 912 Statement of Personal History has mainly two purposes:
1) The main purpose of the form is to weed out the Criminals or Persons of Poor Character. This is subjective if the Offence was years ago or if the person has been convicted of a crime.
2) The second purpose of the form is to run a name check to see if the individual is on the list of possible Terrorists.
Both of these checks are done by the FBI and there can be substantial penalties for any untruthful answers to any of the questions.
The main questions on the form are questions 7, 8, and 9. They all deal with any type of arrest or criminal charges that may have been dismissed, discharged or convicted. SBA sends these forms to the FBI and they will pick up things that you thought, never really got anywhere. These questions along with the question on being a U.S. Citizen are all initialed by the applicant. The SBA will not process unless the borrower initials these questions.
SBA says in their SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) that the SBA cannot provide financial assistance to businesses with Associates that are incarcerated, on probation, on parole, or have been indicted for a felony or a crime of moral turpitude.
An application can be a accepted for processing if the individual indicates an arrest record, but was acquitted or the indictment was dismissed and the individual is not incarcerated, on probation or on parole for any offence.
An individual with a deferred prosecution is treated as if the individual is on probation or parole Such an applicant is not eligible.
The SBA Form 912 is used to determine eligibility. If the individual answers yes to question 7 the then the applicant is not eligible. If the individual answers yes to questions 8 or 9 then the the individual must go though a background check which usually requires a Finger Print Card being printed and sent with an detailed explanation of the situation.
This process of the background check can take months so if at all possible you need to see if the local SBA Office can handle the Eligibility Approval. The local office can usually waive or approve situations of up to a certain level. This should always be pursued first. Feel free to check the SBA’s SOP for further information – there is about seven pages devoted to the subject under the Eligibility Section of the SOP.
Please email me with any questions to roger@rogerschlueter.com or go to my website for more contact information at schlueterfinancial.com