Leslie Bethea Sentenced To 78 Months For PPP Loan Fraud

Summary

A press release published 2023-02-07 by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee announcing that on February 6, 2023 the Honorable J. Ronnie Greer sentenced Leslie D. Bethea, 30, to 78 months in federal prison, three years of supervised release and restitution of $20,805. The office states that Bethea pleaded guilty to wire fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 1343 and making a false statement to her probation officer under 18 U.S.C. § 1001. According to court documents described in the release, while on supervised release from a prior wire fraud sentence in Case No. 2:18-CR-25, she obtained a PPP loan of $20,805 on April 15, 2021 with an application claiming $99,835 in 2019 income, a year she was in prison. It states that she then filed a false monthly supervision report for April 2021.

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Full text

GREENEVILLE, Tenn. – On February 6, 2023, Leslie D. Bethea, 30, currently of Surgoinsville, TN, was sentenced to 78 months in federal prison by the Honorable J. Ronnie Greer, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Greeneville.
On June 14, 2022, the Federal Grand Jury indicted Bethea for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, and making false statements. Bethea agreed to plead guilty to one count of wire fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1343 and one count of making a false statement to her United States probation officer in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001.  Following Bethea’s imprisonment, she will be on supervised release for three years.  Bethea was also ordered to pay restitution totaling $20,805 on account of her theft.
According to filed court documents, Bethea was previously sentenced to prison for 24-months for wire fraud in
United States v. Leslie Bethea,
Case No. 2:18-CR-25 in the Eastern District of Tennessee.  Upon her release from the Bureau of Prisons on October 8, 2020, Bethea began serving a term of supervised release that required her to submit truthful monthly reports to her supervising probation officer.
On March 29, 2021, Bethea obtained a fraudulent Payroll Protection Program (“PPP”) loan in the amount of $20,805.  The fraudulent PPP loan application stated that Bethea had made $99,835 during calendar year 2019 (a year when Bethea was in prison), falsely claimed that Bethea had not been convicted of any fraud offenses during the past five years and attached a fraudulent income tax Schedule C as proof of her claim that she made $99,835.
A PPP loan was approved based on Bethea’s fraudulent application, and Bethea received $20,805 on April 15, 2021.  Bethea used a portion of the fraudulent loan proceeds to pay for a five-day junket at a resort in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida.  She also used some of the fraudulent loan proceeds to pay for an elective cosmetic surgical procedure in Florida while there.
Upon her return to Tennessee, Bethea then submitted a false monthly supervision report to her probation officer for the month of April 2021.  In that report, Bethea falsely claimed she had only received $200 during the month of April, falsely claimed she had no expenses of more than $500 (even though she paid more than that amount to the Sunny Isles Beach resort and the plastic surgery practice while in Florida), and falsely stated that she had not travelled out of the state of Tennessee during the month of April 2021.
U.S. Attorney Francis M. Hamilton III of the Eastern District of Tennessee; and Resident Agent in Charge Jason B. Brown of the United States Secret Service made the announcement.
This prosecution was the result of an investigation by the United States Secret Service.  This investigation was led by Senior Special Agent Thomas Whitehead.
Assistant United States Attorney Mac D. Heavener represented the United States.
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www.justice.gov