An Atlanta man, Kemar Clarke Jr., has been sentenced to eight months in prison and ordered to pay $41,665 in restitution for fraudulently obtaining COVID-19 small-business relief funding. U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia, Jill E. Steinberg, stated, “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. We are committed to holding accountable those who defraud American taxpayers.”
According to court documents and testimony, Clarke was involved in a scheme where a paralegal specialist in the U.S. Army fraudulently obtained a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan for a non-existent barber shop. The soldier then paid Clarke an $8,000 kickback for submitting the application on his behalf. Additionally, Clarke himself obtained PPP funding for $20,832, the maximum amount available to a sole proprietor.
Steven Ausfeldt, Special Agent in Charge of the Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Division’s Southeast Field Office, emphasized, “Unscrupulous actors engaged in PPP fraud have pilfered taxpayer dollars and undermined public trust in government programs. 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 investigation was carried out by the Department of the Army Criminal Investigative Division and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Matthew A. Josephson and David H. Estes.
Individuals with information about attempted fraud involving COVID-19 relief funding are encouraged to report it to the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form.