Columbus PPP Loan Fraud Attorneys.

Your lawyer should start by reading the PPP-related communication and establishing who sent it and under what authority, so they can explain what it asks you to do and any date it gives for your response. If the payroll supporting your requested loan amount is in dispute, your lawyer can trace the payroll figure in your application back to the underlying payroll or tax records, working through the calculation applicable to your loan so that your response can explain the basis of the disputed representation in the application.

Under SBA’s February 2021 review rule, when information suggests that you were ineligible for the loan or that the loan amount was unsupported, SBA requires the lender to write to you and ask for more information, and SBA may also ask you directly. When you respond through the lender, the lender sends your response to SBA, and SBA considers it when deciding the issue under review. Not responding to the request may lead SBA to decide against you on the questioned loan amount. If SBA determines that you were ineligible for the loan, it must direct denial of forgiveness, and if it determines that you borrowed more than the permitted amount, it may direct a partial denial of forgiveness.

A federal criminal subpoena under Rule 17 can require you to attend and testify or to produce specified records at the time and place stated in the subpoena. If producing the records would be unreasonable or oppressive, your lawyer can file a prompt motion asking the court to modify the document subpoena or set it aside, and relief depends on the court granting that motion.

How the payroll figure supported the loan amount

SBA’s February 2021 review rule considers eligibility under the requirements available when you applied and your application’s terms, so explaining the disputed loan amount requires taking relevant amendments into account when choosing the calculation that applied to your type of borrower at that time. Under the initial April 2020 PPP rule, one step in a loan calculation method multiplied qualifying average monthly payroll by 2.5, with other adjustments and the loan cap also affecting the resulting loan amount.

Starting with the payroll figure in your application, your lawyer can work back through the underlying payroll records, using the calculation applicable to you to calculate the qualifying payroll those records support. The initial PPP rule named payroll tax filings as one example of supporting documentation and also allowed other records sufficient to establish eligibility. The same rule also required applicants to certify that the information in the application and its supporting submissions was accurate in all material respects. If your application carried the initial rule’s separate tax-document certification, you certified that the tax documents supplied to the lender matched those submitted to the IRS, so your lawyer can test that statement by comparing the lender’s tax documents with those submitted to the IRS. The amount supported by those records, calculated from the reconstructed payroll under the rules that applied to your loan, can be compared with the amount requested in the application to show whether there is a difference that needs explanation.

What the records mean when wire fraud is alleged

If you’re charged with wire fraud, the government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt all four requirements in the Sixth Circuit’s pattern instruction, adapted to the particular case: that you knowingly participated in a scheme to defraud another of money or property, that the scheme involved material deception, that you acted with fraudulent intent, and that interstate or foreign wire communications were used to further the scheme. A representation is material when it has a natural tendency to influence or could influence the decision of a person of ordinary prudence and comprehension. Where qualifying payroll helped determine your requested loan amount under the applicable calculation, tracing the payroll figure used to support the amount requested back to the records helps answer the materiality question: whether the disputed representation could influence the lender’s decision about how much to lend.

For wire fraud, fraudulent intent means you intend to deceive or cheat in order to deprive another of money or property. If an honest error explains a difference between the submitted figure and the records used to reconstruct your payroll, that error can support good faith, which defeats the fraudulent intent required for wire fraud. A knowingly false representation defeats asserted good faith under this wire-fraud instruction, and the government must prove fraudulent intent beyond a reasonable doubt.

The Columbus connection

Columbus extends into Franklin, Delaware and Fairfield counties. All three counties are in the Eastern Division of the Southern District of Ohio, and Columbus is a designated court location.

Unless a statute or rule permits otherwise, Rule 18 requires a criminal prosecution to proceed in a district where the offense was committed. Your lawyer can compare where the offense allegedly occurred with the district proposed for prosecution and explain whether venue is proper there under Rule 18, taking any applicable statutory or rule exception into account. Within that district, the court sets the place of trial with due regard for the convenience of the defendant, victims and witnesses and for the prompt administration of justice. Those rules determine where the case proceeds, and if a wire-fraud case is tried in Columbus, the government must prove the same federal wire-fraud elements explained earlier.