December 20, 2021. A total of 15 individuals have been charged in connection with a conspiracy to obtain and launder millions of dollars from Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration (SBA) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

According to court records, the defendants falsified both their average monthly payroll and number of employees on their PPP applications. Once they received the funds through these fraudulent applications, the defendants “laundered a portion of the fraudulent loan proceeds by writing checks from companies that received PPP loans to fake employees.” According to the allegations, the defendants laundered over $3 million in loan proceeds via 1,100 fake paychecks cashed at a check-cashing company. By way of penalties for criminal charges, defendants face 20 years in prison per count of wire fraud, 10 years in prison per count of money laundering, and additional time for aggravated identity theft.

COVID-19-related fraud is unfortunately virulent, and prosecution of such is carried out by the Fraud Section of the DOJ’s Criminal Division. Since the CARES Act was passed at the end of March 2020, the “Fraud Section has prosecuted over 150 defendants in more than 95 criminal cases and has seized over $75 million in cash proceeds derived from fraudulently obtained PPP funds, as well as numerous real estate properties and luxury items purchased with such proceeds.”