Charleston Man Sentenced for COVID-19 Relief Fraud Scheme

Summary

A press release published 2023-08-09 by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of West Virginia announcing that United States District Judge Joseph R. Goodwin sentenced Aalik Wilsher, 26, of Charleston to three years of federal probation and $20,459.33 in restitution for receipt of stolen money. According to court documents described in the release, on April 14, 2021 Wilsher applied for a PPP loan for his purported business, falsely certifying that it was established in 2019 and submitting a false Schedule C claiming $97,587 in gross income. The office states that $20,330 was deposited on April 30, 2021, that the SBA forgave the loan on December 13, 2021, and that related documents are under Case No. 2:23-cr-51.

Summary drafted by a model from the document's text below and checked by script against that text before publication. It is a navigation aid, not a reading of what the document proves. Where AI is used

Full text

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Aalik Wilsher, 26, of Charleston, was sentenced today to three years of federal probation and ordered to pay $20,459.33 in restitution for receipt of stolen money. Wilsher admitted to a scheme to defraud the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) of $20,459.33 in COVID-19 relief loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration (SBA) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act).
According to court documents and statements made in court, on April 14, 2021, Wilsher applied for a PPP loan for his purported business, “Aalik Wilsher.” Wilsher admitted that he falsely certified that “Aalik Wilsher” was established in 2019 and was in operation on February 15, 2020. Wilsher further admitted to submitting a false IRS Form 1040, Schedule C, to state that “Aalik Wilsher” had earned $97,587 in gross income during 2019.
The CARES Act, enacted in March 2020, offered emergency financial assistance to Americans suffering from the economic effects caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This assistance included forgivable loans to small businesses for job retention and certain other expenses through the Paycheck Protection Program. Businesses applying for PPP loans had to certify that the business was in operation on February 15, 2020, and were required to provide documentation showing their prior gross income from either 2019 or 2020.
Wilsher’s fraudulent PPP loan application was approved and $20,330 was electronically deposited from a financial institution in Florida to Wilsher’s bank account in Charleston, West Virginia, on April 30, 2021.
Wilsher later applied to have the fraudulent PPP loan and $129.33 in accrued interest forgiven. Wilsher admitted that he had not spent the loan proceeds on permissible business expenses. The SBA forgave Wilsher’s fraudulent PPP loan on December 13, 2021.
United States Attorney Will Thompson made the announcement and commended the investigative work of the West Virginia State Police-Bureau of Criminal Investigations (BCI) and the West Virginia State Auditor’s Office (WVSAO) Public Integrity and Fraud Unit (PIFU).
United States District Judge Joseph R. Goodwin imposed the sentence. Assistant United States Attorney Jonathan T. Storage prosecuted the case.
On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. The Task Force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with administering relief programs to prevent fraud by, among other methods, augmenting and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts. For more information on the Department’s response to the pandemic, please visit
https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus
.
Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at:
https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form
.
A copy of this press release is located on the website of the
U.S. Attorney’s Office
for the Southern District of West Virginia. Related court documents and information can be found on
PACER
by searching for Case No. 2:23-cr-51.
###

File and source

File

2023-08-09_charleston-man-sentenced-for-covid-19-relief-fraud-scheme_fa75cf47.md.txt

Size

3,665 bytes

SHA-256

cacd23a70f60df37aba7d800b33d1b7ed739d7349fbad8dfbdb42cba37746666

Our copy

2023-08-09_charleston-man-sentenced-for-covid-19-relief-fraud-scheme_fa75cf47.md.txt

Original

www.justice.gov