United States' Response to the Defendant's Sentencing Memorandums — United States v. Edrica Leann Watson (M.D. Fla.)

Record facts

U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida · No. 2:21-cr-00107-SPC-KRH · Doc. 53 · 2022-07-27 · Docket on CourtListener

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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 
MIDDLE DISTRICT OF FLORIDA 
FORT MYERS DIVISION 
 
 
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 
 
v.      
 
 
          CASE NO. 2:21-cr-107-SPC-MRM 
 
EDRICA LEANN WATSON 
 
UNITED STATES’ RESPONSE TO THE DEFENDANT’S 
SENTENCING MEMORANDUMS 
 
 
The United States of America has entered into an amended plea 
agreement (Doc. 35) with the defendant which it intends to uphold, but for 
purposes of sentencing, and in light of the defendant’s request for a downward 
variance in her sentencing memorandums (Docs. 44 at 21, 52 at 3), a response 
is warranted to address the defendant’s persistent claim that she did not 
“consume” any of the proceeds of her fraudulent activity because she was 
saving the fraudulent proceeds she received to buy a home, Id.  at 4, footnote 
5, and those saved proceeds were eventually “re-captured” by law 
enforcement.  Doc. 52 at 2.   
 
The Amended PSR now accurately reflects that the defendant did apply 
for and receive a total of three (3) PPP loans for a total of $ 434,227, and the 
defendant did distribute and spend proceeds of those fraudulent loans as soon 
as they were received in her bank accounts.  Specifically, the defendant issued 
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checks to business entities and paid for her other expenses, including credit 
card payments, attorney fees and miscellaneous payments to individuals. The 
defendant did retain a large amount of cash at home in a safe  - $23,750, 
which was recovered by law enforcement during the search warrant.  The 
defendant also had a large amount of funds in her bank account which she 
relinquished in part in the amount of $45,000.  However, that the defendant 
claimed she was going to use the recovered money to purchase a home does 
not mitigate in favor of a variance.  The means here did not justify the 
purported end – the defendant facilitating a fraud over $400,000 with the idea 
of purchasing a home for herself and her children.  That the defendant worked 
with others to commit the fraud, including others she may have known for a 
long time, does not mitigate her circumstances either.  The defendant knew 
this was a fraud and she continued with the fraud until she was arrested.  
While she has accepted responsibility for her criminal actions, those actions 
require a sentence that reflects the seriousness of the crime and provides a just 
punishment.  For those reasons, the United States respectfully requests, 
pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) and the aforementioned sentencing factors, 
that the defendant be sentenced to the low end of the sentencing guidelines in 
accordance with the plea agreement.   
 
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Edrica Watson’s First PPP Loan  
 
On February 3, 2021, Edrica Watson applied for a PPP loan in the 
amount of $20,832, as a sole proprietor working as a cosmetologist.  See Doc. 
50, Amended PSR, at ¶ 24.  That loan was funded on February 10, 2021, and 
a deposit in the amount of $20,832 appeared in the defendant’s bank account1 
on February 11, 2021.    Prior to the loan being funded on February 11, 2021, 
the defendant had a balance of $1,268.29 in account 3155.  The defendant 
then transferred $8,500.00 to account 3155, an account she controlled and 
from which she made personal expenditures.  Subsequent to the transfer of 
$8500.00, and over the course of a week, the defendant spent $5,686.93 on a 
variety of personal items, including the largest - a $3,240.03 credit card 
payment to Capital One.  Discounting the legitimate balance the defendant 
held prior to the $8,500 fraudulent funds transfer, the defendant consumed 
over $4,000 of PPP fraudulent loan proceeds.  In essence, that would have 
exhausted her legitimate bank funds and left her with a balance that consisted 
of only fraudulent loan proceeds, until her next paycheck.   
 
On February 19, 2021, the defendant was paid $1,275.89 from her 
payroll direct deposit.  From February 19 until March 2, 2021, the defendant 
 
1 On February 11, 2021, the defendant had two bank accounts, one ending in 
3155 and the other ending in 8310.  The initial deposit of $20,832 was received 
into account 8310. 
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spent $4,564.59 on personal expenses, leaving a balance of $792.66.  Once 
again, the defendant consumed the proceeds of her fraud, the largest 
expenditure being a payment to a law group in the amount of $1,750.  
 
Between March 5, 2021 and April 13, 2021, the defendant transferred 
an additional $6,000 from the 8310 account, that exclusively held PPP fraud 
proceeds, to her 3155 account, where she continued to use fraud proceeds, 
primarily commingled with her legitimate payroll and a IRS credit.  Between 
March 5, 2021, and April 13, 2021, the defendant received legitimate deposits 
into her 3155 bank account in the amount of $9,452.87.  In total, during the 
time frame of March 5, 2021, to April 13, 2021, the defendant spent 
$11,063.61, which was in excess of her legitimate income and would have to 
have consumed fraud proceeds – approximately $1,610.74.  The next deposit 
into the 8310 account, on April 14, 2021, was the fraudulent second draw PPP 
loan for $20,832.  In sum total, discounting the defendant’s legitimate income, 
the defendant consumed approximately $11,862.26 from the first PPP loan.   
 
Edrica Watson’s Second PPP Loan       
 
As noted above, the second loan proceeds were deposited into the 
defendant’s 8310 account creating a balance of $25,221.26 as of April 14 – all 
of the balance consisting of fraudulent loan proceeds.  The defendant received 
a legitimate credit of $981.78, related to her employment, on April 16, 2021.  
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From April 16 through July 27, 2021, the defendant received a total of 
$8,524.23 for her employment.  The defendant also had cash deposited, 
approximately $20,880, during that time frame, whose origin is believed to be 
associated with the criminal activity related to the defendant’s third PPP loan, 
discussed below, which she received on April 6, 2021, into a third bank 
account ending in 8086.  During the April 16 to July 27 time frame, the 
defendant spent $32,955.39 from the 3155 bank account.  Applying her 
legitimate income deposits to her total expenditures during that time frame 
alone, the defendant consumed an additional $24,431.16 of fraud proceeds.  
In total, the defendant consumed $36,293.42 of fraudulent proceeds from the 
3155 bank account through July 27, 2021.  
 
Edrica Watson’s Third PPP Loan   
 
As originally noted in the Initial PSR and Amended PSR, on April 6, 
2021, $392.563 was deposited into the defendant’s Unity Home bank account 
ending in 8086.  See Amended PSR, ¶ 21.  ATM withdrawals were made from 
these funds and the defendant issued large checks from these proceeds to 
different entities.  Id. at ¶ 21, 22.  The only way ATM withdrawals could have 
been made by someone other than the defendant, which did happen and it is 
not disputed, is by the defendant facilitating access to the 8086 bank account 
holding the fraudulent proceeds.  The defendant created the bank account and 
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she allowed it to be accessed by others to withdraw fraudulent proceeds.  So 
on the one hand, the defendant issued checks expecting a return of fraudulent 
proceeds.  Id. at 26.  On the other hand, she facilitated the extraction of 
fraudulent funds from the account.  Additionally, unbeknownst to law 
enforcement, that facilitation included the defendant convincing Chase Bank 
to unfreeze the account holding the third PPP loan proceeds (approximately 
$92,000 remaining as of July 2021) which were eventually whittled down to 
under $100 by December 2021.  Even if the defendant was provided a script to 
get the account unfrozen, a script is only as good as the actor and in this 
regard, the defendant’s performance was convincing because the account was 
released.   Anyway you look at it, the defendant did these acts knowing she 
was committing a fraud and therefore, she consumed the proceeds of this 
fraudulent loan as well.  That the defendant did not spend all of the proceeds 
on herself is of no consequence, especially when it is admitted that the crime 
was committed with assistance from others.   
 
Conclusion     
 
On the issue of the defendant’s consumption of fraud proceeds derived 
from the PPP loans, it is abundantly clear from any objective review of the 
bank statements through July 2021 that the defendant did consume fraud 
proceeds and did not save all of the ill-gotten gains she obtained in furtherance 
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of purchasing a home.  The defendant’s façade of a residential down payment 
in furtherance of home ownership by saving all of the fraud proceeds, Doc. 44 
at 5-6, Doc. 52 at 1, turns out to be akin to an old Hollywood movie set, just 
an appearance without any internal support.  The bank records belie the claim 
and the Court should not grant a variance on this basis.  Notwithstanding, 
considering all of the sentencing factors enumerated pursuant to 18 U.S.C. 
§ 3553(a), the United States would still recommend a guideline sentence for 
the defendant.   
 
 
 Respectfully submitted, 
 
ROGER B. HANDBERG 
United States Attorney 
  
  
By: /s/ Jesus M. Casas         
JESUS M. CASAS 
Assistant United States Attorney 
Chief, Fort Myers Division 
Florida Bar No. 0152110 
2110 First Street, Suite 3-137 
Ft. Myers, Florida 33901 
Telephone: (239) 461-2200 
Facsimile: 
(239) 461-2219 
E-mail: Jesus.M.Casas@usdoj.gov   
 
 
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CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE 
 
I hereby certify that on July 27, 2022, I electronically filed the foregoing 
with the Clerk of the Court by using the CM/ECF system which will send a 
notice of electronic filing to the following: 
 
James Lappan 
 
Jim_Lappan@fd.org  
 
 
/s/ Jesus M. Casas         
JESUS M. CASAS 
Assistant United States Attorney 
Chief, Fort Myers Division 
Florida Bar No. 0152110 
2110 First Street, Suite 3-137 
Ft. Myers, Florida 33901 
Telephone: (239) 461-2200 
Facsimile: 
(239) 461-2219 
E-mail: Jesus.M.Casas@usdoj.gov 
 
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