A woman from Blue Springs, Missouri, has confessed to participating in a fraudulent scheme related to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan under the CARES Act in a federal court.
Daisha Sanders, a 33-year-old resident of Royse, Texas, admitted her guilt in a case of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The honorable U.S. Chief District Judge Beth Phillips presided over the proceedings. Sanders was responsible for orchestrating a scheme that resulted in the disbursement of over $220,000 in fraudulent PPP loans, spanning from February 2021 to July 2022.
Sanders admitted to creating and submitting fraudulent PPP loan applications on behalf of herself and others in exchange for payment. These applications falsely asserted the presence of sole proprietorships before the pandemic or exaggerated business earnings for 2019. To substantiate these assertions, she forged financial records, IRS forms, and bank documents.
Sanders created a total of 14 fraudulent applications, out of which some were approved and others were denied. She charged fees between $2,000 to $5,000 per application, making a total of $40,832 from this illegal scheme. As part of her plea agreement, Sanders has agreed to forfeit this amount to the government and pay restitution to the Small Business Administration, as determined by the court.
Sanders becomes the eighth defendant in this case to plead guilty. All of her co-conspirators confessed to receiving around $20,833 in fraudulent PPP loans. Despite not utilizing the funds as required under the PPP, the majority of these loans were forgiven.
Bernie Sanders could potentially be sentenced to up to 20 years in federal prison with no chance of parole. The length of his sentence will be decided by federal guidelines and other statutory factors after the United States Probation Office conducts a presentence investigation.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul S. Becker is currently prosecuting the case, with the investigation being carried out jointly by IRS-Criminal Investigation and the Kansas City Police Department.