Plymouth Man Arrested for Paycheck Protection Program Fraud

BOSTON – A Plymouth man has been arrested and charged with wire fraud in connection with fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan applications on behalf of business entities he owned and controlled.

Joseph Kerrissey, III, 46, was charged with three counts of wire fraud. Kerrissey was released following an initial appearance yesterday before U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Kelley.

According to the charging documents, Kerrissey submitted three fraudulent loan applications seeking loans for business entities pursuant to the PPP. The loan applications inaccurately stated that Kerrissey was not on probation during the relevant time period. The loan applications also included fraudulent tax forms that were not filed with the IRS and reported inconsistent income.

The charge of wire fraud provides for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case.  

Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy; Ketty Larco-Ward, Inspector in Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s Boston Division; and Harry Chavis, Jr., Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, Boston Field Office made the announcement today. Valuable assistance was provided by the Plymouth Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Sullivan of the Major Crimes Unit is prosecuting the case.  

On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. The Task Force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with administering relief programs to prevent fraud by augmenting and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts. For more information on the department’s response to the pandemic, please visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus and https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus/combatingfraud. 
    
Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline via the NCDF Web Complaint Form.

The details contained in the charging documents are allegations. The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.