SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Sept. 11, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — A Lehi man who pleaded guilty in February to wire fraud for the theft of $300,000 has been sentenced.
Neil Alan Johnson, 44, was sentenced by a U.S. District Court Judge to five years of probation and ordered to pay $324,519 in restitution and forfeiture.
Johnson admitted he defrauded the COVID-19 relief program, a federal program through the Small Business Administration (SBA) intended to help American businesses and employees weather the economic shock of the global COVID-19 pandemic.
According to court documents and statements made at Johnson’s sentencing hearing, from March 2021 through November 2022, Johnson devised and engaged in a scheme to defraud and obtain money by lying and fraudulently submitting a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Loan Application to the SBA for approximately $324,519 on behalf of his company, says a statement issued by U.S. Department of Justice, District of Utah.
“Then after obtaining the full loan amount, Johnson fraudulently submitted a PPP Loan Forgiveness Application to the SBA for the entire amount of the loan,” the statement says. “His company, named ‘Neil Johnson,’ was located at his home in Lehi, Utah. Johnson submitted the loan applications as the sole proprietor of the company.
“In furtherance of his scheme, Johnson lied on the applications. For example, on the initial loan application, he falsely represented that his self-named company had 21 employees, and an average monthly payroll of $129,808.69, even though it did not.”
On the loan forgiveness application, he falsely represented that the company’s payroll cost between March 25, 2021 and Sept. 9, 2021, was $352,463.80, and that he had used all $324,519 of his loan funds to pay his employees’ payroll, the statement says.
“In reality, Johnson illegally used up to $102,000 of the PPP-Loan proceeds to buy back his house in Lehi and transferred over $39,000 of the loan proceeds to a separate account.”
United States Attorney Trina A. Higgins for the District of Utah made the announcement. Assistant United States Attorney Todd C. Bouton of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Utah prosecuted the case.
Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.
