Utah man sentenced for receiving more than $685K in fraudulent COVID-relief funds

ST. GEORGE, Utah ( ABC4 ) — A Utah businessman was sentenced on Tuesday for fraudulently obtaining more than $685,000 in government funds, according to the District Attorney’s office.

Bradford Leland Fishback, 40, admitted to obtaining the funds from a government program that was intended to help small businesses and employees during the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Tuesday, he was sentenced to more than two years in prison, three years of supervised release and he was ordered by the court to pay $685,845.05 in restitution, according to the Department of Justice.

Court documents revealed that Fishback initially pled guilty to wire fraud, money laundering and false claims in 2023, the DOJ said.

“In total, Fishback’s false statements resulted in him claiming $903,882.88 and receiving $685,845.05 in COVID-relief funds,” the DOJ said in a press release.

According to the DA’s office, Fishback admitted that he “devised a scheme to defraud and obtain money” through the submission of requests for Employee Retention Tax Credits. He filed 22 forms — all of which were Form 941 — with the Internal Revenue Service on behalf of his four businesses.

Fishback received $482,058.46 from the IRS as a result of filing those forms.

Additionally, the DOJ said Fishback fraudulently submitted at least seven loan applications for the Paycheck Protection Program, which led to his receiving $77,629 after making false statements about employees, wages, profit and loss, among other topics.

The DOJ said Fishback further admitted to submitting at least five applications for Economic Injury Disaster loans, from which he received $137,573.

From his submission of “false applications for unemployment benefits” with numerous entities, he received $45,831 in unemployment benefits, the DOJ said.

The case was investigated by the IRS and the FBI, and it was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Dent and Jennifer K. Muyskens of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Utah.

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