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U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of Arkansas, "Hot Springs Man Sentenced to 27 Months for Pandemic Funds Fraud" (Friday, May 27, 2022)

Summary

A U.S. Attorney's Office, Western District of Arkansas release of Friday, May 27, 2022 announcing that James Heritage, 39, of Hot Springs was sentenced on May 26, 2022 to 27 months in prison and ordered to pay $469,082.73 in restitution. He pleaded guilty to two counts involving fraud against the United States Small Business Administration's Paycheck Protection Program and state unemployment programs. Heritage obtained a PPP loan of $183,937.32 with falsified employee and payroll data and collected Pandemic Unemployment Assistance from thirty different states by falsely claiming eligibility in each.

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Full text

                                     Department of Justice

                                       U.S. Attorney’s Office

                                    Western District of Arkansas

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                        Friday, May 27, 2022

    HOT SPRINGS MAN SENTENCED TO 27 MONTHS FOR
              PANDEMIC FUNDS FRAUD
        Hot Springs, Arkansas – David Clay Fowlkes, United States Attorney for the Western
District of Arkansas, announced that on May 26, 2022, James Heritage, 39 of Hot Springs, Arkansas,
was sentenced to 27 months in prison and ordered to pay $469,082.73 in restitution after pleading
guilty to two counts relating to fraud committed against the United States Small Business
Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and numerous state unemployment benefits
administrators.

According to plea documents in the case, Heritage applied for and received a PPP loan for
$183,937.32, using falsified employee and payroll data. In addition, Heritage applied for and
received Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, a supplemental form of unemployment benefits, from
thirty different states, by falsely representing to those states’ benefits administrators that he was
eligible for the benefits.

Both the Paycheck Protection Program and Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program are parts
of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, a federal law passed in March
2020, designed to provide emergency financial assistance to the millions of Americans who are
suffering the economic effects caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The case was investigated by the Department of Labor Office of the Investigator General, the Federal
Bureau of Investigations, the United States Postal Inspection Service, and the Small Business
Administration Office of the Inspector General. Assistant United States Attorney Hunter Bridges
prosecuted the case for the United States.

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.
Component(s):
USAO - Arkansas, Western
                                                                                  Updated May 27, 2022

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