A north Mississippi woman will serve a year and a half in federal prison for defrauding over $5 million from a COVID-19 relief program aimed at helping small businesses pay their employees and cover operating costs during the pandemic.
On Sept. 11, U.S. District Judge Thomas L. Parker sentenced Lisa Evans, 43, of Olive Branch, to 1 ½ years in prison and three years supervised release. She faced a maximum sentence of 20 years for conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
As part of her sentence, Evans must pay $4.4 million in restitution to the U.S. Small Business Administration. She also is prohibited from opening additional lines of credit without prior approval, according to court docket notes.
She requested to serve her sentence as close to Memphis as possible to be near family. As of Wednesday, information about her location was not listed through the Bureau of Prisons, which makes that determination.
Between April 2020 to November 2021, Evans submitted fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program loan applications through her Memphis-based tax service business, USA Taxes.
Small businesses and other organizations that qualified could receive a loan to help pay for payroll, mortgage interest, rent and utilities. Instead, Evans applied for PPP loans for multiple people who weren’t entitled to receive them.
A 2023 superseding indictment detailed how Evans conspired with dozens of other owners to submit loan applications with false documents and statements, including the number of employees, payroll of the business and certifications of how the money would be used.
After securing the loan, the business owners paid Evans a kickback of between 20-30% of the loan. One owner, referred to H.S. in court records, received about $786,000 and paid Evans about $220,000 in return.
“Individuals cheating the Paycheck Protection Program stole money from U.S. taxpayers who desperately needed these loans to keep their small businesses afloat and pay their employees during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Reagan Fondren, the then-acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, said in a February statement.
Evans was indicted with Lina O’Dea, who allegedly created false federal documents that she used in the loan applications. O’Dea also pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing. Another business owner was charged in 2022, but the charge was dropped.
Evans pleaded guilty in February and agreed to pay restitution in exchange for the federal government not pursuing additional charges against her for fraudulent COVID-19 relief applications submitted in 2020 and 2021, according to court records.
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