United States v. James P. Dawson

Case summary

James P. Dawson, 40, now of Orlando, Florida, who lived in central Ohio at the time, certified that his business Stadium Bar LLC was in operation on February 15, 2020. It was not. The certificate of occupancy for the bar's location was not signed until March 20, 2020, and the bar did not have a liquor license until May 26, 2020. Dawson admitted in a law enforcement interview that it did not open until June 20, 2020. He pleaded guilty to wire fraud and making a false statement within the jurisdiction of a federal agency, tied to five PPP loans and four Economic Injury Disaster Loans.¹

According to court documents, Dawson submitted five fraudulent PPP applications between April and October 2020, two of which were approved and funded, plus four fraudulent EIDL applications that were never funded but still generated three EIDL advances. His applications sought more than $1.1 million in all, and more than $200,000 was disbursed as a result. The PPP applications misrepresented the businesses' monthly payroll expenses and number of employees, and falsely represented that they were in operation on February 15, 2020.¹

Dawson's sentencing was to be scheduled after a presentence investigation. Kenneth L. Parker, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, announced the plea entered before U.S. District Judge Sarah D. Morrison; Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter K. Glenn-Applegate represented the government.¹

Notes

1. U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Ohio, "Former central Ohio man pleads guilty to fraud in applications for $1.1 million in COVID relief loans" (original), July 18, 2023. ↩₁ ↩₂ ↩₃

Summary written from the documents on this page; every sentence is sourced.