Quentin Allen Jackson was a businessman, and he was going to make sure his business qualified for the COVID-19 Paycheck Protection Program one way or another. One way or another meaning, his supporting documents were going to have a few extra zeros and he was going to use his friends and employees to make those numbers seem real.
Jackson filed for fraudulent PPP loans in the names of several companies, using inflated payroll numbers. After receiving the proceeds, Jackson had to show that he was paying regular wages as intended by the CARES Act. So, Jackson carried out a scheme to make it appear as though the company was paying bi-weekly payroll to its employees. He wrote checks payable to each of the individuals that were named as employees in the PPP loan applications. These recipients were either not employees of the company at all, or they were not actually earning wages comparable to what was represented in the loan applications. Jackson instructed his “employees” to cash the checks and then return the cash back to him.
Jackson didn’t stop at just filing for fraudulent PPP loans. He was so confident that he was successful at it, he started a second COVID-19 PPP scheme — as a recruiter. Jackson actually paid a fee for every person he successfully recruited to file for a fraudulent PPP loan. He recruited over a dozen fraudster wannabees and coached them in the same scheme he used to obtain his funds. In total, Jackson and his co-conspirators received over $4 million in PPP loans.
Jackson got caught though and on November 9, 2022, Jackson plead guilty to money laundering the fraudulent proceeds of Paycheck Protection loans. He faces up to 20 years in prison.
Great job by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation team who led this case.
Today’s Fraud of the Day is based on an article “Cary man pleads guilty to covid-19 loan fraud” published by CBS North Carolina News on November 9, 2022
A Cary man pleaded guilty to a multi-million-dollar fraud scheme, U.S. Attorney Michael Easley said in a release.
Quentin Allen Jackson, 56, plead guilty Wednesday to “conspiracy to commit money laundering with respect to the fraudulent proceeds of paycheck protection act.”
Jackson worked with others to get fraudulent paycheck protection program (ppp) loans under multiple businesses that are “under Jackson’s control,” according to Easley.
