Andre Clark, PPP Loan Fraud, Florida 2021

A Florida man was sentenced to 33 months in prison for fraudulently seeking over $7,263,564 in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration (SBA) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Andre Clark, 48, of Miramar, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud on May 14, 2021.

According to court documents, Clark admitted that he obtained a PPP loan of $488,565 on behalf of his company, Top Choice LLC, based on falsified information and documents that a co-conspirator, James Stote, submitted on his behalf. Clark also admitted to recruiting friends and associates whom he referred to Stote for the purpose of submitting additional fraudulent PPP loan applications, sometimes in exchange for kickbacks. Clark admitted to seeking $6,774,999 in fraudulent PPP loans through other conspirators that he referred to the scheme.

In addition to the prison sentence, Clark was ordered to pay $2,975,086 in restitution. Two other co-conspirators, Tonye Johnson and Tiara Walker, were recently sentenced for their role in the scheme. Johnson, 29, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for obtaining a fraudulent PPP loan of $389,627 for his company, Synergy Towing & Transport LLC. Walker, 38, of Miami Gardens, Florida, was sentenced to 12 months and a day in prison for obtaining a fraudulent PPP loan of $258,575 for her company, Utilization Review Pros LLC.

James Stote, a co-conspirator, was charged by complaint on June 24, 2020, with wire fraud, bank fraud, and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and his case remains pending. A complaint is merely an allegation and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

The IRS-CI, FBI, and SBA-OIG investigated the cases. Trial Attorney Philip Trout of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys David Turken and David Snider of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida prosecuted the cases.

The Fraud Section leads the department’s prosecution of fraud schemes that exploit the PPP. In the months since the PPP began, Fraud Section attorneys have prosecuted more than 100 defendants in more than 70 criminal cases. The Fraud Section has also seized more than $65 million in cash proceeds derived from fraudulently obtained PPP funds, as well as numerous real estate properties and luxury items purchased with such proceeds.

In May, 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 additional tools and resources.