Launderer Sentenced to 30 Months for PPP Loan Scam

CAMDEN, N.J. – In a brazen case of COVID-19 relief program abuse, an Atlantic County, New Jersey, man has been sentenced to 30 months in prison for laundering the proceeds of fraudulently obtained Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans.

Jeremy Earley, 42, of Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey, and Lilburn, Georgia, pleaded guilty on June 1, 2023, before U.S. District Judge Karen M. Williams to an information charging him with one count of engaging in a monetary transaction in criminally derived property. Judge Williams imposed the sentence on April 29, 2024, in Camden federal court.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court, Earley’s companies received loans totaling more than $1.3 million from the PPP in 2020 and 2021. The loans were approved based on fraudulent applications submitted by another individual, who claimed the companies had dozens of employees and monthly payrolls of $145,000 and $382,400, respectively. However, Earley’s businesses had no employees other than himself and paid minimal to no wages.

After receiving the PPP loan proceeds, Earley wrote checks totaling nearly $400,000 to the individual who submitted the loan applications to compensate her for her role in submitting the fraudulent loan applications. He also wired $85,000 of the proceeds out of a bank account he controlled after being advised by federal agents not to spend the money because it constituted proceeds of bank fraud.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Williams sentenced Earley to three years of supervised release. This case is part of a larger scheme to defraud the PPP, which provided forgivable loans to small businesses for job retention and certain other expenses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rhonda Thomas, a co-conspirator in the scheme, previously pleaded guilty to bank fraud conspiracy and money laundering and was sentenced to five years in prison.

U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger credited special agents of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation – Office of the Inspector General, the Social Security Administration, Office of the Inspector General, the FBI’s South Jersey Resident Agency, and the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of the Inspector General, with the investigation leading to the sentencing.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel A. Friedman and Attorney-In-Charge Jason M. Richardson of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Criminal Division in Camden.

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