A Detroit man has been sentenced to prison and ordered to pay $14.5 million in restitution in connection with a fraud scheme involving COVID-19 pandemic relief loans, officials said.
Matthew Lloyd Parker was sentenced to 24 months in prison, followed by four years of supervised release, according to a release from the Acting United States Attorney Troy Rivetti of the Western District of Pennsylvania.
Parker, a licensed CPA, and others defrauded lenders of more than $14.5 million by submitting false applications for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) COVID-19 pandemic relief loans.
Officials say he recruited hundreds of small businesses from Detroit and Pennsylvania and submitted false PPP applications in their names.
More than 200 of them were approved, and businesses received $14.5 million in loans.
“The United States argued that Parker’s sophistication as a CPA aided him in falsifying the hundreds of PPP loan documents, which then generated substantial PPP loans to others along with approximately 1.5 million dollars in loan processing fees to Parker,” according to the release.
In addition to serving his prison sentence, Parker also must pay $14.5 million in restitution to the Small Business Administration.