St. Louis Woman Who Fraudulently Sought More Than $1.1 Million in COVID-19 Loans Sentenced to 24 Months in Prison
Summary
Federal press release datelined St. Louis announcing that U.S. District Judge Joshua M. Divine sentenced Bridgette Johnson, 61, of Berkeley, Missouri, to 24 months in prison, a $75,000 fine and repayment of $129,000 for fraudulently seeking more than $1.1 million in pandemic loans. According to the release, Johnson received $120,000 from the Paycheck Protection Program by falsely claiming that her registered business Compassion at Home would use it to retain employees, later sought forgiveness by falsely claiming permitted use, and instead made cash withdrawals. It says she also admitted fraudulently applying for $1 million in Economic Injury Disaster Loans.
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“DOJ Usao Edmo Press Release Woman Who Committed 129000 Pandemic Fraud Fined Sentenced Pri 2026 01 14.”
Original at www.justice.gov. Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/doj-usao-edmo-press-release-woman-who-committed-129000-pandemic-fraud-17eb32bd88/
, SHA-256 151ff4428375432c1f44020d8de8470fca9909a87d6b1caf841a9bd8243ee732.Full text
ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Joshua M. Divine on Wednesday sentenced a woman who fraudulently sought more than $1.1 million in loans during the COVID-19 pandemic to 24 months in prison and ordered her to pay a $75,000 fine. Judge Divine also ordered Bridgette Johnson, 61, of Berkeley, Missouri, to repay the $129,000 that she stole. Johnson fraudulently applied for and received $120,000 from the pandemic-era Paycheck Protection Program by falsely claiming that one of the numerous businesses that she registered in Missouri, Compassion at Home, would use PPP loan money to retain employees and pay business expenses. She later sought loan forgiveness, falsely claiming that she’d used the money for permitted purposes. Johnson instead made tens of thousands of dollars in cash withdrawals from the account that had received the loan money. Johnson also admitted fraudulently applying for $1 million in Economic Injury Disaster Loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration by falsely inflating profit and personnel count in eight applications in 2020 and 2021 filed in her name and in the name of five of her companies. Although the SBA rejected most of the applications after flagging them as fraudulent, Johnson did receive $9,000 in advances. “Johnson used a global pandemic as an opportunity to enrich herself of approximately $130,000 at the expense of small businesses that desperately needed that money to pay their employees and keep their operations from shuttering,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin Ladendorf wrote in a sentencing memo. Johnson pleaded guilty in October to one count of wire fraud. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin Ladendorf prosecuted the case. Anyone with information about pandemic fraud should call the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or report via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form .
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