Utah Woman Found Guilty of $10M Worth of PPP Loan Fraud

Salt Lake City, Utah – A federal jury convicted a Salt Lake County woman Thursday of two counts of making false statements designed to influence a bank, one count of money laundering, and one count of contempt.

According to court documents and the evidence presented at trial, Allison Marie Baver, 42, of Taylorsville, Utah, submitted eight fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan applications for her company, Allison Baver Entertainment LLC (ABE). PPP loans were designed to enable small businesses to pay their employees during the COVID-19 crisis. Baver is the owner and agent of ABE. On April 25 and 26, 2020, Baver submitted the fraudulent PPP loan applications to Northeast Bank and Meridian Bank. In each of the loan applications, Baver sought $10 Million of PPP loan funding for ABE. She falsely stated in each application that ABE’s average monthly payroll was between $4,770,583, when ABE had no average monthly payroll; and falsely stated ABE had 430 employees, when ABE had no employees. Baver’s false statements influenced Meridian Bank to fund her requested $10 million PPP loan. After receiving the loan proceeds, she transferred $150,000 to invest in a movie.   

Sentencing is scheduled for October 30, 2023, at 10:00 a.m. before U.S. District Court Judge Jill N. Parrish at the Orrin G. Hatch United States District Courthouse in downtown Salt Lake City.

U.S. Attorney, Trina A. Higgins for the District of Utah made the announcement.

The case was investigated jointly by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Salt Lake City Field Office, Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General (SBA-OIG), and the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigations (IRS-CI).

Assistant United States Attorneys Jennifer Muyskens and Jamie Z. Thomas are prosecuting the case.

The Fraud Section leads the Criminal Division’s prosecution of fraud schemes that exploit the PPP. Since the inception of the CARES Act, the Fraud Section has prosecuted over 200 defendants in more than 130 criminal cases and has seized over $78 million in cash proceeds derived from fraudulently obtained PPP funds, as well as numerous real estate properties and luxury items purchased with such proceeds. More information can be found at https://www.justice.gov/criminal-fraud/ppp-fraud.