COVID scheme: Cary man pleads guilty to stealing nearly $4 million in PPP loan money

A Cary resident pleaded guilty Wednesday to pocketing millions of dollars in federal aid intended to help small businesses struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Quentin Allen Jackson, 56, admitted to conspiracy to commit money laundering for obtaining fake Paycheck Protection Program loans for several small businesses under his control, according to a news release.

He faces a fine and up to 20 years in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney General Michael Easley of the Eastern District of North Carolina.

In March 2020, Congress passed the CARES Act to help provide emergency financial assistance to millions of Americans suffering economic losses from the pandemic.

The PPP loan assistance was an additional $649 billion in forgivable loans to small businesses in the bill.

In total, Jackson obtained about $4 million in PPP loan money and recruited over a dozen people to help him obtain the funds, a news release said.

To carry out his scheme after getting the loan money, Jackson worked to make it seem as though his companies were paying employees on a bi-weekly basis, a news release said.

Over the span of six to eight weeks, Jackson wrote checks to each of the people previously named as employees in the loan applications, making it appear like the companies were paying them regular wages, the release said.

“In most instances, the recipients of the checks were either not employees of the borrower company at all, or they were not actually earning wages comparable to what was represented in the loan applications,” the release said. “Jackson instructed his purported employees to cash the checks, and then return the illicit cash to him.”

In addition to stealing the loan money, Jackson served as a “middleman” and collected a fee from his co-conspirators for each additional fraudulent borrower he recruited.

The recruited people would launder the money for Jackson from the loans, the release said.

The office did not specify what Jackson bought with the loan money nor where the businesses were located. The individuals part of his scheme were also not identified.

“We will vigorously pursue criminals who lined their pockets with taxpayer money while the pandemic crippled local businesses,” Easley said.

The Eastern District of NC’s COVID Task Force is part of an effort to investigate and prosecute pandemic-related fraud cases.

Jackson’s sentencing is expected to happen next year.