Jamie McGowen was the owner of Salem Outsourcing, Inc., a payroll processing company, which provided payroll and income tax services to Al’s Trailer Sales of Salem. But while she did provide Al with paystubs detailing the withholdings and taxes for each of his employee’s paychecks, she failed to pay the Internal Revenue Service the $705,613 in payroll taxes that she had withheld from the paychecks of the company’s employees. Instead, McGowen pocketed the money for herself and used a portion of the fraudulently gained funds to, among other things, purchase a 100% ownership stake in the very company she was stealing from. McGowen became the proud owner of Al’s Trailer Sales of Salem, using the money she stole from them.
McGowen was also partial owner, or full owner, of eight other companies including Reality RV and Trailers, Casey’s Restaurant, and Reality Auto – all businesses that she used, along with Al’s Trailer Sales, to fraudulently file for federal relief programs intended to help small businesses during the Covid-19 pandemic, including the Paycheck Protection Program, Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, and Restaurant Revitalization Fund.
McGowen made numerous false statements in the 15 separate loan applications, stating she did not own any other company. She also inflated the number of employees and revenues and provided false tax documents. As a result of her false statements, she received more than $1.2 million which she transferred between businesses and her father to hide the fraudulently gained proceeds.
On May 15, 2025, McGowen pleaded guilty to COVID-19 loan fraud and money laundering.
Shout out to the Small Business Association Office of Inspector General (SBA-OIG) and the IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) who investigated this case.
Today Fraud of The Day “Payroll processor sentenced for $2M tax fraud, COVID loan scheme” published by The Oregonian on May 15, 2025.
Jamie McGowen, 43, had pleaded guilty to wire fraud, bank fraud and two counts of money laundering in December. She was ordered to pay more than $2 million in restitution. Getty Images. A woman who stole more than $2 million by pocketing money withheld in taxes from a Salem company and by submitting 15 fraudulent COVID-era loan applications was sentenced to three years and one month in prison Thursday
.Jamie McGowen, 43, pleaded guilty in December to wire fraud, bank fraud and two counts of money laundering. While working as a payroll processor for Al’s Trailer Sales of Salem Inc. from 2016 to 2019, she withheld $705,613 in payroll taxes from employees salaries but never filed required federal income tax forms with the Internal Revenue Service and “kept all the money for herself,” according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Meredith Bateman.
