Atlanta men accused of receiving over $600k in PPP loans indicted for fraud

WSBTV.com News Staff
·3 min read
28

Two men from Atlanta face federal indictments by grand juries for pandemic-related fraud, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia.

Kenneth Wilkerson, 39, and Jeremy Graves, 38, both face more than a dozen charges each for what the Department of Justice called fraudulent acquisitions of loans from the pandemic’s Paycheck Protection Program.

Collectively, the two men received more than $613,000 in funds from the PPP and Economic Injury Disaster Loans, meant for small businesses.

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The Justice Department and U.S. Attorney’s Office said Wilkerson illegally possessed multiple firearms in what federal agents described as a “drug trafficking operation, generating hundreds of thousands of dollars in illicit proceeds.”

Robert J. Murphy, from the Drug Enforcement Agency’s Atlanta Division, said Wilkerson tried to conceal money laundering with PPP and EIDL funds, allegedly by submitting nine applications for loans from the Small Business Administration and other lenders.

Additionally, U.S. Attorney Ryan Buchanan said Wilkerson allegedly filed fraudulent tax forms and bank statements to get the money, then “failed to spend [it] on authorized” business expenses.

The DOJ said Wilkerson allegedly took more than $383,000 in loans.

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Graves, on the other hand, used stolen identification documents from several victims to apply for and receive unemployment insurance benefits, according to the DOJ.

DOJ said Graves used stolen IDs to apply for unemployment benefits in multiple states, including Georgia, California, Maryland, and Nevada, with graves listing several addresses, including his own.

Debit cards with UI benefits loaded on them were mailed to Graves at the addresses he listed, according to DOJ, then he would activate the cards by calling the associated banks, then request new cards, and apply for benefits on his victims’ behalves.

None of the individuals he applied for had given him, or anyone, permission to do so. Through his activities, Graves allegedly received more than $230,000 in benefits that he was not entitled to.

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As a result, the two men were charged with the following crimes by the federal government:

Wilkerson:

  • 11 counts of wire fraud

  • 1 count of money laundering

  • 2 counts of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon

According to USAO, Wilkerson allegedly submitted the fraudulent applications in an effort to obtain $800,000 in PPP and EIDL funds for multiple “seemingly defunct businesses.”

Graves:

  • 11 counts of wire fraud

  • 8 counts of aggravated identity theft

  • 7 counts of theft of government funds

“An important part of the mission of the Office of Inspector General is to investigate allegations of fraud related to unemployment insurance programs. We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to aggressively investigate these types of allegations,” said Mathew Broadhurst, Special Agent-in-Charge, Southeast Region, U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General.

The two men’s actions were not related to each other.

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