Utah trucking company employee pleads guilty to PPP loan fraud


A freight forwarder in Utah pleaded guilty to her role in a fraud program related to the paycheck protection program.

Lisa Bradshaw Rowberry, 49, of Provo, Utah, pleaded guilty in federal court to investigating loan application fraud for illegally granting a federal Paycheck Protection Program loan. This comes from a press release from the US Attorney's Office for the District of Utah. The sentencing is scheduled for July 7th.

Rowberry worked for Frisbu shipping company owned by her co-defendant Hubert Ivan Ugarte, who pleaded guilty to federal court in April of PPP loan fraud and bribery allegations at the FedEx Ground Hub in Salt Lake City.

Under the plea agreement, Rowberry admitted to filing a fraudulent loan application with the Transportation Alliance Bank in Ogden, Utah for PPP loans approved by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act. She fraudulently received $ 210,000 PPP loans for Frisbu after failing to disclose on the loan application that Ugarte was federally charged for his role in a bribery program involving the FedEx Ground Hub.

Rowberry said she first met Ugarte while working as a branch manager at a U.S. bank branch in Utah that Ugarte was a customer and that when she worked for him, she knew he was in because of his role in was charged with a FedEx bribery program.

In the bribery case, Ugarte was convicted of fraud and money laundering for his involvement in a pay-to-play trucking program involving 10 defendants who bribed the manager of the FedEx Ground Hub in Utah in the amount of approximately 1 million Had paid US dollars to take advantage of the managerial position with FedEx and make their trucking business as lucrative as possible.

In the plea agreement, Ugarte admitted to bribing FedEx Ground senior linehaul manager Ryan Lee Mower with approximately $ 490,000.

This earned Ugarte freight forwarders more than $ 24 million in a seven-year period between 2012 and 2019. To run the program, Ugarte and Mower sought to disguise the property of Ugarte's many freight forwarders by filing false compliance reports with FedEx Ground, rewarding Ugarte with more trucking routes than a business owner was entitled to under the established guidelines.

In the second case of PPP loan fraud, Ugarte pleaded guilty to submitting a fraudulent loan application to the Small Business Administration. Ugarte admitted that he had fraudulently obtained $ 210,000 PPP loans after failing to reveal that he was on federal charges for his role in the fraudulent trucking system.

On May 14, 2020, Ugarte received USD 210,000 from the Transportation Alliance Bank as part of the PPP. Rather than using at least 75% of the loan to pay labor bills, including paid back payslips, Ugarte used 60% of the loan to pay the overdue truck payments - 40% for the wages and salaries.

The conviction in both cases of Ugarte is scheduled for June 3rd.

The CARES Act is federal law passed March 29, 2020 to provide emergency financial assistance to millions of Americans suffering from the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

PPP loan proceeds must be used by businesses for labor costs, mortgage interest, rents and utilities. The program allows the interest and principal on the loan to be paid in full if the company spends the loan proceeds on these expense items within a specified period of time after receiving the proceeds and uses a certain amount of the loan proceeds on payroll. LL


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https://businessservicesnews.ca/utah-trucking-company-employee-pleads-guilty-to-ppp-loan-fraud/

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