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ProfilePerson

Shawn Michael Simmerer

Defendant

PPP · ERC
Type
Person
Role
Defendant
Programs
PPP, ERC
Updated

The profile

The founder of a Florida "leadership training" company, Your 10 Life Foundation, who got more than $344,000 in forgiven PPP loans and more than $680,000 in IRS refunds from Employee Retention Credit and sick-leave claims. A jury convicted him in November 2025 and he was sentenced in 2026 to seven years.

Identity and role

Shawn Michael Simmerer, 49 at trial and 50 at sentencing, of Winter Haven, Florida, founded Your 10 Life Foundation, which the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida describes as a "leadership training" company. He and Seth Downes, 30, of Portland, Michigan, were indicted on February 28, 2024 and again by superseding indictment on January 29, 2025.

The scheme and pandemic-relief role

Starting in April 2020, according to the trial evidence as the office summarized it, the two men submitted PPP applications for several companies, two of them for Your 10 Life Foundation, claiming employees and payroll that did not exist and attaching "phony payroll records and tax returns that were either never filed, or differed from the versions filed, with the IRS." They obtained more than $344,000 in PPP loans and then had them forgiven with further false applications.

Simmerer also prepared and filed tax returns for Your 10 Life Foundation claiming "hundreds of thousands of dollars" in COVID-related credits. The evidence at trial showed the Employee Retention Credits (ERC) and sick and family leave credits were fraudulent, and he obtained more than $680,000 in IRS refunds from them, about twice what the PPP loans brought in.

  • Convicted: by a federal jury in November 2025. Simmerer was found guilty of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and four counts of submitting false claims to the IRS on the ERC and leave credits; Downes of conspiracy and wire fraud on the PPP scheme.
  • Sentenced: to seven years in federal prison, with forfeiture of $334,300 and more than $1 million in restitution, the office reported on September 14, 2026 in a round-up of COVID-fraud cases. Downes received three years of probation, forfeiture of $194,000 and more than $195,000 in restitution.

Where they are now (2025–2026)

His case and Leon Haynes's are the two ERC cases the Justice Department's releases through September 15, 2026 announce as jury convictions. The September 2026 release is the last public record of Simmerer we found. It reports the sentence as part of a nationwide COVID loan-fraud enforcement action and gives no sentencing date.

Sources

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