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Halee Ann Mehlbauer

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The profile

A Tooele, Utah woman the U.S. Attorney's Office called the ringleader of a PPP loan scheme run through businesses that did not exist; sentenced in December 2025 to 15 months in prison and $177,030 in restitution.

Identity and role

Halee Ann Mehlbauer, of Tooele, Utah, was the first-named defendant in United States v. Mehlbauer et al., No. 2:24-cr-00061-DBB, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah. The Justice Department gave her age as 38 when she was charged in March 2024 and as 40 when she was sentenced. Its sentencing release ran under the headline "Utah Ringleader of COVID-19 Scheme Sentenced to Prison."

The scheme and pandemic-relief role

From about July 15, 2020 to about January 15, 2022, according to the sentencing release, Mehlbauer put false information on multiple PPP and other lender applications and backed them with documents in the names of businesses that did not exist. The money came through small lenders and the Small Business Administration. With her codefendant, Timothy Lopez, she obtained approximately $177,030 in PPP loans. The two spent it on gambling, debt payments, car rental payments and other expenses that had nothing to do with payroll.

Loan record: what the indictment alleged

A federal grand jury returned the indictment on February 28, 2024, against Mehlbauer, Lopez and a third Tooele County resident. The charging release of March 28, 2024 summarizes it: the three used fictitious businesses that had not existed before the pandemic, inflated or invented their employee counts, payroll and gross income, and supported the numbers with fake tax and payroll tax forms that were never filed with the IRS. The government counted at least 10 PPP loan applications and five forgiveness applications seeking about $422,242.50. It said the defendants obtained at least about $195,930.50 and had at least about $155,477.50 forgiven, and that Mehlbauer wrote herself checks for at least $49,475.02 of the loan money. Those figures are the indictment's allegations; at sentencing the government put the amount Mehlbauer obtained at $177,030.

  • Charged: February 28, 2024, by indictment in the District of Utah. The three defendants faced seven counts of wire fraud and aiding and abetting; Mehlbauer alone also faced a money laundering count. Their initial appearance was set for March 28, 2024.
  • Pleaded guilty: September 24, 2025, to wire fraud and money laundering.
  • Sentenced: December 23, 2025, by U.S. District Judge David Barlow, to 15 months in prison and two years of supervised release. She was ordered to pay $177,030 in restitution, $48,507 of it jointly with Lopez.
  • Codefendant: Lopez was sentenced to time served.

Where they are now (2025–2026)

Public record on Halee Ann Mehlbauer after the December 2025 sentence is limited; this profile reflects the U.S. Attorney's Office releases as of September 25, 2026.

Sources

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