[US] Georgia woman receives prison sentence for COVID relief fraud

In the US, a Georgia woman has been sentenced to serve nearly three and a half years in federal prison for fraudulently obtaining more than $6 million in COVID relief funds, The Herald reports.

Federal prosecutors say Hunter VanPelt (49) of Roswell submitted six false loan applications to the Paycheck Protection Program from April to June 2020. She requested a total of more than $7.9 million and received more than $6 million, according to a press release from prosecutors. 

Prosecutors said Ms VanPelt, who legally changed her name from Ellen Corkrum in July 2016, owned or controlled six companies and lied about the average monthly payroll and number of employees at each company. 

In addition, she filed false tax, bank and payroll documents along with those applications. The Paycheck Protection Program represents billions of dollars in forgivable small business loans for Americans struggling as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The programme forms part of the coronavirus relief package that became federal law in 2020. The federal government has been recovered around $2.1 million of the money Ms VanPelt received. 

Ms VanPelt pleaded guilty in August. The prison term of three years and five months that she received on January 4 will be followed by five years of supervised release. The judge also reportedly ordered her to pay restitution of more than $7 million and to forfeit more than $2 million. 

“The Paycheck Protection Program is meant to help legitimate businesses and their workers through the depths of the pandemic,” U.S. Attorney Kurt Erskine said in the press release. “Unfortunately, VanPelt decided to use the program as her personal bank. A significant federal sentence, such as the one she received, hopefully, deters others from following the same path.”

Source: The Herald

(Quote via original reporting)

In the US, a Georgia woman has been sentenced to serve nearly three and a half years in federal prison for fraudulently obtaining more than $6 million in COVID relief funds, The Herald reports.

Federal prosecutors say Hunter VanPelt (49) of Roswell submitted six false loan applications to the Paycheck Protection Program from April to June 2020. She requested a total of more than $7.9 million and received more than $6 million, according to a press release from prosecutors. 

Prosecutors said Ms VanPelt, who legally changed her name from Ellen Corkrum in July 2016, owned or controlled six companies and lied about the average monthly payroll and number of employees at each company. 

In addition, she filed false tax, bank and payroll documents along with those applications. The Paycheck Protection Program represents billions of dollars in forgivable small business loans for Americans struggling as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The programme forms part of the coronavirus relief package that became federal law in 2020. The federal government has been recovered around $2.1 million of the money Ms VanPelt received. 

Ms VanPelt pleaded guilty in August. The prison term of three years and five months that she received on January 4 will be followed by five years of supervised release. The judge also reportedly ordered her to pay restitution of more than $7 million and to forfeit more than $2 million. 

“The Paycheck Protection Program is meant to help legitimate businesses and their workers through the depths of the pandemic,” U.S. Attorney Kurt Erskine said in the press release. “Unfortunately, VanPelt decided to use the program as her personal bank. A significant federal sentence, such as the one she received, hopefully, deters others from following the same path.”

Source: The Herald

(Quote via original reporting)