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Brian T. Owen

Defendant

ERC
Type
Person
Role
Defendant
Programs
ERC
Updated

The profile

The president of a bankrupt Bossier City, Louisiana oilfield consulting company who intercepted its Employee Retention Credit checks, about $3.8 million, and paid himself through an account the rest of the company's leadership did not know about, cheating a creditors' trust of its 30 percent share. He was sentenced in May 2025 to 30 months.

Identity and role

Brian T. Owen, 52, of Caddo Parish, Louisiana, was president of an oilfield consulting service business headquartered in Bossier City, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Louisiana. The releases do not name the company. IRS Criminal Investigation, the FBI and the Louisiana State Police investigated.

The case and pandemic-relief role

The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the Western District of Louisiana on June 22, 2020. Its plan of reorganization, in January 2021, created a Distribution Trust to repay creditors, and Owen signed the trust agreement as president. Under the plan, any additional compensation Owen received from the company was subject to a 30 percent payment directly to the trust.

In 2021 the company began applying for Employee Retention Credits (ERC). The refunds arrived as paper Treasury checks. According to the office, Owen "devised a scheme to defraud the Distribution Trust by intercepting the physical U.S. Department of Treasury Checks before they were deposited into the company's working accounts." He had opened a bank account in the company's name while it was still in bankruptcy, "unbeknownst to other senior leadership," and deposited a total of $3.8 million in ERC funds there as additional compensation for himself. He did not pay the trust its 30 percent and spent the money on personal expenses, including gambling debts.

The court ordered $1,157,154.39 in restitution. That figure is 30 percent of $3,857,181.30, which is consistent with the trust's share of the ERC money; the releases do not state the calculation.

  • Charged: by bill of information filed September 30, 2024, with one count of money laundering.
  • Pleaded guilty: October 21, 2024 ("yesterday," in the office's October 22 release).
  • Sentenced: by U.S. District Judge S. Maurice Hicks Jr. to 30 months in prison, three years of supervised release, a $100,000 fine and $1,157,154.39 in restitution, the office announced on May 27, 2025.

Where they are now (2025–2026)

The May 2025 sentence is the last public record of Owen we found. His case and Ashley Clark Ingram's are the two in the Justice Department's ERC releases through September 15, 2026 in which an insider diverted a real employer's refund.

Sources

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