Atlanta man who provided phony documentation to receive small business pandemic relief payments has been sentenced to prison (Kemar Clarke)

Summary

A U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Georgia press release dated 2024-03-18, announcing that U.S. District Court Judge R. Stan Baker sentenced Kemar Clarke Jr. of Atlanta to eight months in prison and three years of supervised release, with $41,665 in restitution. According to the release, Army investigators found that a paralegal specialist at Hunter Army Airfield obtained a $20,832 PPP loan for a non-existent barber shop and paid an $8,000 kickback to Clarke for submitting the application. The release states that Clarke also fraudulently obtained $20,832 in PPP funding for himself, and that the restitution reflects both payouts. The Department of the Army Criminal Investigative Division investigated.

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SAVANNAH, GA:
An Atlanta man who provided phony documentation to receive small business pandemic relief payments has been sentenced to prison and ordered to repay the funding.
Kemar Clarke Jr.,
28, of Atlanta, has been sentenced to eight months in prison and ordered to pay $41,665 in restitution, said Jill E. Steinberg, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia. U.S. District Court Judge R. Stan Baker also ordered Clarke to serve three years of supervised release upon completion of his prison term.
“When Congress approved relief funding for small businesses struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic, far too many people saw it as an opportunity to cash in at the expense of deserving business owners,” said U.S. Attorney Steinberg. “We are committed to holding accountable those who defraud American taxpayers.”
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act authorized the Small Business Administration to provide and/or guarantee loans to keep small businesses afloat during the pandemic’s financial challenges. One of the programs provided forgivable loans through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).
As described in court documents and testimony, agents from the Department of the Army Criminal Investigative Division at Fort Stewart determined that a paralegal specialist serving in the U.S. Army at Hunter Army Airfield had fraudulently obtained a PPP loan for a non-existent barber shop. The investigation also determined that the soldier, after receiving $20,832 in PPP funding, then paid an $8,000 kickback to Clarke for submitting the application on his behalf.
The investigation also determined that Clarke also had fraudulently obtained PPP funding for $20,832 – the maximum amount available to a sole proprietor. The restitution amount reflects the total PPP payouts.
“Unscrupulous actors engaged in PPP fraud have pilfered taxpayer dollars and undermined public trust in government programs.” said Steven Ausfeldt, Special Agent in Charge of Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Division’s Southeast Field Office. “We will continue to aggressively pursue fraudsters who try to defraud the U.S. Army and hold them accountable for exploiting government programs for their own profit.”
The case was investigated by the Department of the Army Criminal Investigative Division and prosecuted for the United States by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Matthew A. Josephson and David H. Estes.
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
.

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