Alabama PPP Loan Fraud Lawyers

| by Max Soni

Alabama PPP Loan Fraud Lawyers

You got the letter from the SBA Office of Inspector General. Maybe it arrived certified mail, requesting documentation for your PPP loan – payroll records, tax returns, bank statements, proof you actually had the employees you claimed. Or maybe FBI agents knocked on your door at 7 AM, asking questions about your business operations during the pandemic. Either way, you’re now in the federal criminal justice system’s crosshairs, and what happens next determines whether you face years in federal prison or walk away with your freedom intact.

Thanks for visiting Spodek Law Group – we’re a second-generation law firm managed by Todd Spodek, with over 40 years of combined experience defending clients against federal charges that other attorneys call unwinnable. We’ve handled cases that captivated national attention, including the Netflix series about Anna Delvey and the Ghislaine Maxwell juror misconduct case. When you’re facing federal prosecutors in Alabama who’ve made PPP fraud enforcement a top priority, you need attorneys who understand what’s actually at stake – not just your business, but decades of your life.

Why Alabama PPP Loan Cases Are Different From What Most Lawyers Understand

The federal government distributed over $800 billion in PPP loans with minimal oversight, then launched aggressive prosecutions when the inevitable chaos produced questionable applications. That’s not justice – that’s entrapment by bureaucracy. When prosecutors target business owners who struggled to interpret contradictory SBA guidance during a pandemic, constitutional protections aren’t optional niceties; they’re the only barrier between aggressive prosecution and wrongful conviction.

Alabama’s three federal districts – Northern, Middle, and Southern – have prosecuted dozens of PPP fraud cases since 2023. In the Northern District, Quincy T. Doss received 84 months in federal prison for obtaining $220,000 in fraudulent PPP loans. In the Southern District, Jason Carl Pears got 30 months and owed $1.2 million in restitution after spending PPP funds on luxury goods and real estate. These aren’t white-collar slaps on the wrist. Federal judges in Alabama are sending people to prison for years.

What makes these prosecutions particularly insidious: U.S. Attorneys in Alabama’s Northern, Middle, and Southern districts coordinate with the SBA Office of Inspector General, FBI, and Treasury Inspector General to build cases that look overwhelming by the time you’re indicted. They’re not investigating whether you made an honest mistake during a pandemic – they’re building criminal conspiracy cases under 18 U.S.C. § 1343 (wire fraud) and § 1344 (bank fraud), each carrying up to 30 years in federal prison when connected to financial institutions or disaster relief programs.

The 10-Year Problem

Congress extended the statute of limitations for PPP fraud from five to ten years. Federal prosecutors can investigate and charge PPP cases until 2031 for loans issued in 2021, potentially 2033 for the program’s final days. The SBA Office of Inspector General has explicitly stated that PPP investigations will continue for years, auditing loans already forgiven, examining applications that seemed fine at the time but now look suspicious through the government’s hindsight lens.

Think about what this means. You received PPP loan forgiveness in 2021. The SBA said you qualified. No problems for three years. Then in 2025, you get an audit letter demanding documentation you didn’t think you needed to keep. The government now questions whether you actually had the employees you claimed, whether your payroll calculations were accurate, whether you used funds properly. This is constitutional overreach disguised as fraud enforcement. The government created a rushed program with vague eligibility rules, encouraged businesses to apply quickly, then retroactively criminalized good-faith applications.

What Triggers Investigation

SBA’s fraud detection systems flag applications for multiple reasons: loans exceeding $2 million (the SBA audits every loan in this category), inconsistencies between reported payroll and tax records, multiple loans for related businesses, bank statements showing funds used for purposes beyond payroll and rent, or someone reported you – a disgruntled employee, business partner, or competitor who contacted the SBA hotline. Once flagged, investigations follow predictable patterns. The SBA OIG sends document requests, refers discrepancies to federal prosecutors, FBI opens criminal investigation. Agents interview your employees, review financial records, subpoena bank accounts. By the time they indict you, they’ve built a case designed to pressure guilty pleas.

Federal Charges You’re Actually Facing

Prosecutors in Alabama’s federal districts typically charge PPP fraud cases under these statutes: Wire Fraud (18 U.S.C. § 1343) – Every electronic communication related to your PPP application becomes a separate count. You submitted the application online? That’s wire fraud. You emailed documents to your lender? More wire fraud charges. You received funds via wire transfer? Additional counts. Wire fraud carries up to 20 years in federal prison, or 30 years when connected to disaster relief programs like PPP.

Bank Fraud (18 U.S.C. § 1344) – Because PPP loans were processed through banks, prosecutors charge bank fraud even though the SBA guaranteed the loans. This statute also carries up to 30 years imprisonment and $1 million in fines. The government doesn’t need to prove you actually defrauded the bank – they just need to show you made false statements that could have affected the bank’s decision.

False Statements (18 U.S.C. § 1001) – Any misrepresentation on your PPP application, even if you genuinely misunderstood the requirements, can be charged as making false statements to the federal government. Five years in prison per count, and prosecutors love stacking these charges. Add money laundering if you moved funds between accounts, and you’re looking at another 20 years.

The federal sentencing guidelines calculate your sentence based on loss amount, your role in the scheme, whether you obstructed the investigation, and criminal history. For PPP fraud exceeding $1.5 million, base sentencing starts at 21-27 months. Add obstruction or leadership enhancements, and sentences quickly reach 5-10 years.

Why Most Alabama Lawyers Can’t Help You

Most criminal defense attorneys in Alabama handle state court cases – DUIs, drug possession, assault charges. Federal PPP fraud is entirely different. You’re not negotiating with a county prosecutor who has 200 other cases. You’re facing Assistant U.S. Attorneys who work with FBI agents, SBA investigators, forensic accountants, and IRS criminal investigators who’ve spent months building a case against you before they even knock on your door.

At Spodek Law Group, we defend clients against federal prosecutors nationwide. Our attorneys include former federal prosecutors who understand how the government builds these cases, what evidence they need to prove each element, and where their cases are weak. When prosecutors in Tuscaloosa or Mobile or Birmingham decide to make an example of a PPP borrower, we don’t negotiate from fear – we analyze their evidence, challenge their legal theories, and force them to prove every element beyond a reasonable doubt.

What to Do Right Now

Don’t make statements to investigators without counsel present. Anything you say – even explanations that seem helpful – becomes evidence prosecutors use against you. FBI agents will tell you they just want to clear things up, understand what happened, give you a chance to explain. That’s interrogation technique designed to get admissions they’ll use at trial.

The government’s goal is extracting guilty pleas. Federal prosecutors win over 90% of their cases because most defendants plead guilty rather than risk decades in prison if they lose at trial. They’ll offer you a “deal” – plead guilty to one or two counts, accept a 24-month sentence, agree to restitution. Sounds reasonable compared to 20 years if you’re convicted at trial. That’s the coercive pressure of federal prosecution. Without experienced counsel analyzing the actual strength of their evidence, you’re negotiating blind.

We’re available 24/7 because federal investigations don’t happen on convenient schedules. When agents show up at your business or home, when the SBA sends audit letters, when prosecutors call demanding cooperation – those are the moments that determine whether you preserve your defense or inadvertently provide the evidence they need to convict you. Constitutional protections exist because the founders understood that government power, unchecked, leads to injustice. When Alabama federal prosecutors weaponize a pandemic relief program to rack up conviction statistics, those protections become essential. We’re here to hold them to their burden of proof – beyond a reasonable doubt, every single element, based on evidence obtained constitutionally. Call us immediately.