Louisville, Kentucky – A federal grand jury in Louisville returned an indictment yesterday charging a local man with thirteen counts of fraud related to various CARES Act financial assistance programs.
According to court documents, between August 5, 2020, and October 5, 2021, Blake Patterson, 37, of Louisville, Kentucky filed eleven fraudulent applications for various CARES Act financial assistance programs, including Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans and Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL), resulting in the theft of $133,802 and attempted theft of an additional $608,704.50. Patterson organized the entities et Propellente, Darke Rose, and Link LLC after the onset of the Covid 19 pandemic. He then exaggerated the gross revenues, number of employees, and payroll of those entities in the fraudulent applications he filed. Patterson was granted one EIDL payment in the amount of $67,900 and one PPP loan in the amount of $65,902. Patterson further submitted a fraudulent application seeking forgiveness of the PPP loan, which was ultimately granted.
The Small Business Administration (SBA) PPP loans were designed to provide a direct incentive for small businesses who were in operation on February 15, 2020, to keep their workers on the payroll. PPP loan proceeds were required to be used by the business on certain permissible expenses. Interest and principal on PPP loans could be entirely forgiven if the business spent the loan proceeds on the allowable expenses within a designated period of time and used a certain percentage of the PPP loan proceeds on payroll expenses.
The CARES Act authorized the SBA to provide EIDLs of up to $2 million to eligible small businesses experiencing substantial financial disruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic. EIDL proceeds could be used to pay fixed debts, payroll, accounts payable and other bills that could have been paid had the disaster not occurred.
Patterson is charged with twelve counts of wire fraud in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1343 and one count of bank fraud in violation of Title 18 United States Code Section 1344. The defendant made his initial court appearance today before a U.S. Magistrate Judge in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 270 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
U.S. Attorney Michael A. Bennett of the Western District of Kentucky and Kelly K. Moening, Special Agent in Charge, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, Great Lakes Field Division, made the announcement.
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) is investigating the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicole Elver is prosecuting 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.
An indictment is merely an allegation, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
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| URL | |
|---|---|
| Component | USAO - Kentucky, Western; |
| OIG | Treasury IG for Tax Administration |