Utah PPP Loan Fraud Lawyers

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 in federal cases across the country. If you’re facing PPP loan fraud charges in Utah, you already know how serious this is. Federal prosecutors in the District of Utah have made pandemic fraud a priority, and they’re not slowing down in 2025.

We’re writing this because Utah residents keep getting charged years after receiving PPP loans. The government isn’t done investigating – and mistakes you made in 2020 or 2021 can still land you in federal court today.

Federal Prosecutors Are Still Going After Utah PPP Cases

You’d think pandemic fraud cases would be over by now. They’re not. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Utah continues filing new PPP fraud indictments in 2025. Just this past April, a Draper businessman pleaded guilty to wire fraud after submitting a fraudulent PPP application for over $628,000. He got three years supervised release and full restitution.

Then there’s the Tooele County fraud ring case from early 2024 – three people allegedly ran a scheme from July 2020 to January 2022, submitting at least 10 fraudulent PPP applications and trying to steal over $422,000 from lenders and the SBA. They got about $195,000 in loan funds and had another $155,000 forgiven before getting caught.

The pattern is clear. Federal investigators are reviewing old applications, cross-checking payroll records, examining bank statements from years ago. They’re looking for inflated employee counts, fake payroll expenses, and misuse of funds. If something doesn’t match up, they’ll come after you – even if the loan was disbursed back in 2020.

A Utah Woman Got Convicted of $10 Million in PPP Fraud

One of the biggest Utah cases involved a woman found guilty of attempting to fraudulently obtain approximately $10 million in PPP loans. That’s not a typo. Ten million dollars. The IRS Criminal Investigation Division worked the case alongside federal prosecutors, and she was convicted.

Cases like this show how aggressively the government pursues large-dollar PPP fraud. But here’s what worries us – they’re also going after smaller amounts. The Cottonwood Heights case involved $266,000. Another defendant got 24 months in prison for stealing “thousands of dollars” in PPP money. The government doesn’t have a minimum threshold. If they think you lied on the application, they’ll prosecute.

What PPP Fraud Charges Actually Look Like in Utah

Most Utah PPP fraud cases involve wire fraud charges. Wire fraud carries up to 20 years in federal prison – sometimes 30 years if it affects a financial institution. That’s the baseline charge, but federal prosecutors often stack additional counts:

Bank fraud can add another 30 years and fines up to $1 million. Making false statements to the SBA or a lender – that’s another 30 years maximum. Conspiracy to defraud the government adds five years. If you filed false tax returns related to the PPP funds, add tax evasion charges with up to five more years.

You don’t get these sentences consecutively in most cases, but the maximums exist for a reason. Prosecutors use them as leverage. They want you terrified of trial. They want you to plead guilty to “just” wire fraud and accept whatever deal they offer.

We’ve handled federal fraud cases where prosecutors overcharge clients to force plea deals. It works on defendants with inexperienced lawyers. It doesn’t work when you have attorneys who’ve defended high-stakes federal cases and know how to negotiate from strength.

Why Utah PPP Defendants Need National-Level Defense

Utah has excellent local criminal defense attorneys. But PPP fraud cases aren’t like state-level theft or fraud charges. These are federal prosecutions handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys who specialize in financial crimes. The investigators are FBI agents, IRS Criminal Investigation special agents, and SBA Office of Inspector General personnel. They’ve been building pandemic fraud cases for years.

Your defense needs to match that level of sophistication. You need lawyers who understand federal sentencing guidelines, who know how loss amount calculations affect your sentencing range, who can challenge the government’s forensic accounting, and who’ve successfully negotiated with federal prosecutors in similar cases.

At Spodek Law Group, we’ve represented clients in cases that made national headlines – Anna Delvey’s fraud trial that became a Netflix series, the Ghislaine Maxwell juror misconduct case, federal fraud schemes involving millions of dollars. We’re not intimidated by complex financial evidence or aggressive prosecutors.

The Government Has to Prove You Intended to Defraud

This matters more than people realize. PPP fraud isn’t a strict liability crime. The government must prove you knowingly made false statements with intent to defraud the lender or SBA. Mistakes aren’t fraud. Confusion about PPP rules isn’t fraud. Relying on an accountant’s bad advice isn’t fraud.

If you genuinely believed your business qualified, if you made good-faith estimates of payroll based on projected hiring, if you misunderstood the employee count requirements – these are defenses. The problem is that federal prosecutors assume every misstatement was intentional. They look at your bank records, see you spent PPP funds on non-payroll expenses, and conclude you committed fraud from the start.

That’s where aggressive defense makes the difference. We force the government to prove intent. We show the jury – or the prosecutor during plea negotiations – that our client made mistakes but didn’t have criminal intent. We present evidence of your business operations, your reliance on professional advisors, your interpretation of constantly-changing PPP guidance.

What Happens If You Just Repay the Loan?

Some people think repaying fraudulently-obtained PPP funds will make criminal charges go away. It won’t. Restitution helps during sentencing – judges do consider whether you paid the money back – but it doesn’t prevent prosecution.

The Draper defendant repaid over $628,000 and still got convicted of wire fraud. Restitution was part of his sentence, not a substitute for it. The government’s position is that fraud occurred when you submitted the false application, not when you spent the money. Paying it back shows remorse and reduces sentencing exposure, but doesn’t erase the crime.

That said, if you haven’t been charged yet and realize you received PPP funds improperly, voluntary disclosure and repayment can sometimes prevent prosecution. The timing matters. The approach matters. You can’t just wire money back to the SBA and hope that fixes everything. You need a lawyer to negotiate the disclosure, frame it correctly, and maximize your chances of avoiding criminal charges.

Federal Sentencing in Utah PPP Cases

Federal judges in Utah use the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines to determine prison time. The guidelines calculate a recommended sentencing range based primarily on two factors – the loss amount and your criminal history.

For fraud offenses, the base offense level increases as the loss amount increases. Fraud involving $150,000 to $250,000 adds 12 levels to your base offense level. Over $250,000 to $550,000 adds 14 levels. Over $550,000 to $1.5 million adds 16 levels. The levels keep climbing with the dollar amount.

A first-time offender with no criminal history starts at Criminal History Category I. If your total offense level ends up at 18, the guidelines recommend 27-33 months in prison. At offense level 20, you’re looking at 33-41 months. These aren’t mandatory, but judges usually sentence within the guidelines range unless there are compelling reasons to depart.

Acceptance of responsibility can reduce your offense level by 2-3 points if you plead guilty early and express genuine remorse. That can knock several months off your sentence. Your role in the offense matters too – if you organized a fraud scheme involving multiple people, you’ll face sentencing enhancements. If you were a minor participant, you might get a reduction.

The federal system doesn’t have parole. If you’re sentenced to 33 months, you’ll serve at least 85% of that time – about 28 months – before release. That’s real time in federal prison, not county jail.

Why We Take Utah PPP Cases Nationwide

We’re based in New York, but we represent clients nationwide in federal cases. Federal practice doesn’t require us to be local – we can appear in the District of Utah, work with local counsel if needed, and handle your entire defense from investigation through trial or sentencing.

Our digital case management system means you’ll have 24/7 access to your case file, billing, and confidential communications. We’re available around the clock because federal cases don’t respect business hours. Investigators might call you at 7 AM. Prosecutors might demand responses by end-of-day. You need lawyers who respond immediately.

We’ve built our practice around one principle – we only take cases where we can make a real difference. If federal prosecutors have you dead to rights with overwhelming evidence and you need help negotiating the best possible plea deal, we’ll do that. If the government’s case has holes and you have viable trial defenses, we’ll fight it. Either way, we’re focused on your outcome, not our relationship with the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Unlike firms that worry about maintaining friendly relationships with prosecutors, our loyalty is only to you. We’ve defended clients accused of defrauding New York’s elite, juror misconduct in the country’s most high-profile trial, and federal fraud schemes across the country. We don’t back down from aggressive prosecutors.

If you’re under investigation for PPP fraud in Utah or you’ve already been charged, contact us immediately. Every day you wait is a day prosecutors are building their case while you’re not building your defense.