Mobile Man Sentenced to More Than Seven Years in Prison for Fraudulent PPP Loan Application and Fentanyl Distribution

Summary

A U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Alabama press release dated 2023-08-23 announcing that U.S. District Judge Terry F. Moorer sentenced Kentarius Williams of Mobile to 85 months in prison: 14 months for wire fraud and 71 months, consecutive, for a fentanyl distribution conspiracy. According to the release, in April 2021 Williams applied for a $20,833 PPP loan as sole proprietor of a nonexistent cleaning service, using a fake tax schedule showing more than $100,000 in income. It states that from at least September 2022 through February 2023, including while on pretrial release in the wire fraud case, he conspired to distribute fentanyl. Judge Moorer also imposed five years of supervised release and $200 in special assessments.

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MOBILE, AL – A Mobile man was sentenced to a total of 85 months in prison for committing wire fraud in connection with a false PPP loan application and conspiring to distribute fentanyl while on federal pretrial release conditions.
According to court documents, in April 2021, Kentarius Williams, 31, submitted a fraudulent application to the Small Business Administration (“SBA”) requesting a Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) loan in the amount of $20,833. In his PPP loan application, Williams falsely claimed that he was the sole proprietor of a nonexistent “cleaning service” business in need of relief due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Williams submitted a fake tax schedule purporting to show more than $100,000 in business income and monthly payroll expenses in excess of $8,000. In submitting the fraudulent application to the SBA, Williams caused a wire communication to travel from the SBA’s computer servers in Virginia to a bank’s computer servers in Oregon, in violation of the federal wire fraud statute.
Additionally, Williams admitted that from at least September 2022 through February 2023, he conspired with other people to distribute fentanyl. On several occasions, narcotics agents used confidential informants to conduct controlled purchases of fentanyl pills from Williams. Those transactions—including sales of fentanyl that Williams made while he was on pretrial release conditions in his federal wire fraud case—were videotaped. Agents executed a search warrant at Williams’s apartment in Mobile in February 2023, seizing fentanyl and oxycodone pills, among other things. Agents also searched Williams’s cell phone, which contained numerous text and Instagram messages in which he discussed his sales of fentanyl and other drugs. For example, in January 2023, Williams wrote that he “got rich off” sales of fentanyl pills, which he said he could obtain for “dirt cheap.”
United States District Judge Terry F. Moorer sentenced Williams to serve 14 months in prison for the wire fraud, and 71 months in prison for the fentanyl distribution conspiracy, ordering the prison terms to run consecutively to one another. In addition to the 85-month total prison term, Judge Moorer ordered Williams to serve a five-year term of supervised release upon his release from prison, during which time he will undergo drug testing and treatment. The court did not impose a fine, but Judge Moorer ordered Williams to pay $200 in special assessments.
U.S. Attorney Sean P. Costello of the Southern District of Alabama made the announcement.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation, SBA Office of Inspector General, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, and Mobile Police Department investigated the wire fraud case. The Drug Enforcement Administration investigated the drug case.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kasee Heisterhagen and Lydia Lucius prosecuted the wire fraud case on behalf of the United States. Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin Roller prosecuted the drug case on behalf of the United States.

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