Hot Springs man sentenced for pandemic funds fraud

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Hot Springs, Arkansas — David Clay Fowlkes, United States Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas, announced Thursday that 39-year-old James Heritage of Hot Springs, Arkansas, was sentenced to 27 months in prison and ordered to pay $469,082.73 in restitution after pleading guilty to two counts relating to fraud committed against the United States Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and numerous state unemployment benefits administrators.

According to plea documents in the case, Heritage applied for and received a PPP loan for $183,937.32, using falsified employee and payroll data.

In addition, Heritage applied for and received Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, a supplemental form of unemployment benefits, from thirty different states, by falsely representing to those states’ benefits administrators that he was eligible for the benefits.

Both the Paycheck Protection Program and Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program are parts of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, a federal law passed in March 2020, designed to provide emergency financial assistance to the millions of Americans who are suffering the economic effects caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

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