Pandemic Darlings The pandemic economy, in original documents
Home Profiles Sarah E. Loucks

Profiles · Oversight

ProfilePerson

Sarah E. Loucks

Oversight and enforcement

PPP
Type
Person
Role
Oversight and enforcement
Programs
PPP
Updated

The profile

DOJ Fraud Section trial attorney named on the Kabbage False Claims Act resolution.

Identity and role

Sarah E. Loucks is a trial attorney in the Fraud Section of the Commercial Litigation Branch, part of the Justice Department's Civil Division in Washington. She has worked on both of the government's PPP False Claims Act matters involving Kabbage: the May 2024 settlement with the bankrupt lender and the suit against three of its former executives that the United States joined in December 2024.

Biography / career arc

Our records on Loucks are the Kabbage court filings and two Justice Department press releases, which give her section and title but not her earlier career.

Pandemic-relief / PPP-EIDL role

The 2024 settlement. When Kabbage, Inc. d/b/a KServicing filed for Chapter 11 in Delaware on October 3, 2022, its list of the 30 largest unsecured claims put the Civil Division's Fraud Section fourth, as a "Litigation" claim of undetermined amount, with Loucks named first among the contacts. Her name is on the government's May 7, 2024 notice in United States ex rel. Berteletti v. Kabbage, Inc. (D. Mass. No. 1:20-cv-12114-GAO) that it would intervene to settle with Kabbage. The May 13, 2024 announcement credits her as "Fraud Section Trial Attorney Sarah E. Loucks" alongside prosecutors in Massachusetts and the Eastern District of Texas. The two settlements give the United States an allowed unsecured claim in the bankruptcy of up to $120 million: up to $63.2 million over allegations that Kabbage systemically inflated loans, and up to $56.7 million over allegations that it ran inadequate fraud controls.

The executives case. On December 20, 2024 the United States filed a complaint in intervention in United States ex rel. Pietschner v. Petralia (E.D. Tex. No. 4:21-cv-110-SDJ) against Kabbage co-founders Kathryn Petralia and Robert Frohwein and former head of strategy Spencer Robinson. The Justice Department's announcement names Loucks and Assistant U.S. Attorney Betty Young as handling the matter. The government alleges that between April and October 2020 the three knowingly caused false claims for guarantees, forgiveness and processing fees on tens of thousands of PPP loans that were inflated by calculation errors or approved without adequate fraud controls. According to the complaint, Kabbage approved more than $7 billion in PPP loans in 2020 and was paid more than $217 million in processing fees.

Loucks is listed among the government's counsel on the complaint, on its April 17, 2025 omnibus opposition to the defendants' motions to dismiss, on its April 24, 2025 opposition to their motion to stay discovery, and on its May 30, 2025 sur-reply.

Their own relief

Neither the SBA's public PPP loan-level data (September 30, 2024 release) nor the USAspending COVID-EIDL award files we searched list a loan to a borrower named Sarah Loucks.

Loucks is counsel for the United States, not a party. The claims against Frohwein, Petralia and Robinson are allegations; no court has ruled on them. In the 2024 settlement, KServicing Wind Down Corp. admitted Kabbage's payroll-calculation errors, and the fraud-control claims were resolved as allegations.

Where they are now (2025–2026)

On March 19, 2026 Judge Sean D. Jordan granted the defendants' motion to stay discovery in the Texas case until he rules on their four motions to dismiss. He found that personal jurisdiction over all three defendants was ripe for decision and that the motions "provide substantial arguments for dismissal of many, if not all," of the claims. The parties' September 10, 2025 privilege-log stipulation, which lists Loucks among the government's counsel, is our latest filing naming her.

Sources held in this archive

  • Who Got Paid
  • When the Guaranty Fee Ran Backwards

Sources

Back to top