CINCINNATI, OH – While already behind bars on state charges, Willie Boyce, 41, is facing new federal accusations: ripping off the Paycheck Protection Program. A grand jury indictment unsealed today alleges Boyce schemed to obtain over $40,700 in COVID-19 relief funds despite being incarcerated for the majority of 2019 – the year he claimed generated $98,500 in business income.
Boyce, currently serving time in Hamilton County, allegedly submitted two separate applications for PPP loans on April 4 and April 9, 2021. He claimed ownership of a business listed simply as “Willie Boyce,” supposedly offering taxi and ridesharing services. The catch? He was released from prison in September 2020 to a halfway house, and spent 2019 locked up, making his income claim a blatant lie.
The indictment details how Boyce allegedly used the halfway house as his business address and bolstered the fraud with a forged bank statement. It worked, at least temporarily. In early May 2021, the funds landed in his account. Instead of using the money to support a legitimate business, investigators say Boyce went on a spending spree.
Forget payroll or legitimate business expenses. According to authorities, Boyce allegedly blew the PPP loan money on high-end purchases at Gucci and Louis Vuitton, travel booked through Expedia, stays at Hampton Inn, and flights on Delta Airlines. A clear case of turning a crisis into a personal shopping opportunity, prosecutors say.
Boyce is now charged with four counts of wire fraud, each carrying a potential sentence of up to 20 years in federal prison. Kenneth L. Parker, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, announced the indictment, the result of a joint investigation by the Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, U.S. Secret Service, Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles Investigations, and the Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office.
Special Assistant United States Attorney Timothy Landry is prosecuting the case. It’s crucial to remember, as the U.S. Attorney’s Office emphasizes, that an indictment is simply an accusation. Boyce is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law – a court where he’ll have to explain how a prisoner managed to generate nearly $100,000 in income and then spent COVID relief funds on luxury goods.
Related Federal Cases
- Sark Wire Corporation, PPP Fraud, Albany NY, 2023 · Pennsylvania
- Sark Wire Corporation, PPP Loan Fraud, Albany NY, 2020 · Ohio
- James Pavlounis, Social Security Administration Fraud and Tax Evasi… · Texas
- Nicole Pennington Sentenced to 44 Months for COVID Loan Wire Fraud,… · Kentucky
- Todd Faustin, Workers’ Compensation Fraud, New York NY, 2023 · Ohio
Key Facts
- Agency: U.S. Secret Service
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: Official Press Release
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