Somerset County Man Sentenced to 46 Months in Prison for $1.6 Million COVID-19 Loan Fraud Scheme

U.S. Attorney's Office

District of New Jersey

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wednesday, November 30, 2022

Somerset County Man Sentenced to 46 Months in Prison for $1.6 Million COVID-19 Loan Fraud Scheme

TRENTON, N.J. -- A Somerset County, New Jersey, man was sentenced today to 46 months in prison for fraudulently obtaining $1.6 Million in federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Insurance Disaster Loan (EIDL) funds, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced.

Jordan C. Larkins, 32, of Somerset, New Jersey, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Zahid N. Quraishi to an information charging him with one count of wire fraud, one count of bank fraud, and one count of money laundering. Judge Quraishi imposed the sentence today in Trenton federal court.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

From May 2020 through July 2020, Larkins perpetrated a scheme to defraud PPP lenders and the SBA by submitting three fraudulent PPP loan applications to three different lenders and 11 fraudulent EIDL applications to SBA. The fraudulent applications resulted in a total loss of $1.64 million to the lenders and the SBA. Larkins misused the funds by, among other things, transferring funds to a foreign bank and paying various personal expenses.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Quraishi sentence Larkins to three years of supervised release and order restitution in the amount $ 1.64 million.

U.S. Attorney Sellinger credited postal inspectors of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in Newark, under the direction of Acting Inspector in Charge Raimundo Marrero, Philadelphia Division; special agents of the IRS--Criminal Investigation, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge Tammy Tomlins; and special agents of the Social Security Administration, Office of the Inspector General, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Sharon MacDermott, with the investigation leading to today's sentencing.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Fatime Meka Cano of the U.S. Attorney's Office Economic Crimes Unit in Newark.

Press Release Number:

22-444

Updated November 30, 2022