A former Jacksonville financial advisor has been sentenced to six years and six months in federal prison and ordered to forfeit more than $7.3 million following a PPP-loan fraud case involving shell companies. His case is one of several Florida prosecutions folded into a nationwide summer enforcement surge that federal officials say topped $245 million in intended taxpayer loss.
The former advisor, Jared Dean Eakes, was identified in the case account, which also discusses personal expenses and options trading, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida. The office announced Monday that it had joined the Department of Justice Fraud Section, the Small Business Administration, and the SBA Office of Inspector General in a coordinated takedown that ran from June 12 through September 1 and drew on 40 U.S. Attorney's Offices and 20 federal and state agencies nationwide, encompassing more than 160 criminal defendants tied to the $245 million figure, as detailed in a companion release from the Northern District of Florida.
The case was framed as part of a broader mission to protect government relief programs from abuse.
The broader effort brought together Middle District prosecutors, investigators, and law enforcement partners.
Winter Garden Case Shows Fraud Spreading to Others
In a separate Orlando-based prosecution folded into the same surge, Winter Garden resident Verlynn Horne was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison and ordered to forfeit $2.51 million. Horne's case involved pandemic loans and relief applications, according to the same account from the Middle District of Florida. She used her share to buy real estate in Winter Garden and failed to file federal tax returns, according to the office.
Another Middle District case targeted tax-credit relief rather than SBA loans directly. Shawn Michael Simmerer was involved in conviction-related proceedings concerning COVID-related tax filings, the Middle District of Florida reported.
Not every Florida case in the sweep involved millions of dollars. Three Tampa Bay area U.S. Postal Service employees, from Wimauma, Plant City, and Riverview, were sentenced to probation after falsely claiming sole proprietorship of non-existent businesses to fraudulently obtain $20,832 in PPP loans, all of which they spent on personal expenses, according to the same Middle District release.
Administrative Clawback Reaches Hundreds of Thousands of Borrowers
Beyond criminal prosecutions, the Small Business Administration announced Monday that it had administratively suspended roughly 870,000 borrowers connected to $39 billion in suspected fraudulent PPP and COVID-19 EIDL activity across 45 states, six territories, and Washington, D.C., according to Just The News. Suspended borrowers are barred from applying for future federal small business or disaster relief loans.
The SBA also formally referred roughly 562,000 suspected fraudulent borrowers to the Department of Justice for investigation and referred more than 560,000 delinquent borrowers tied to roughly $22.2 billion to the Treasury Department for debt collection, per the U.S. Small Business Administration. Many of those flagged accounts had previously gone uncollected under prior administrative guidelines.
State-level reviews found California with 111,620 borrowers suspended over $8.6 billion in suspected fraudulent loans, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration. Actions were also reported in Minnesota.
A Decade-Long Window for Prosecutors
A CBS News report cited an estimate that more than $200 billion in pandemic-era funds showed signs of fraud. Federal oversight bodies flagged rushed loan disbursements in 2020 as the primary driver of that abuse.
Prosecutors have years left to keep filing cases. The PPP and Bank Fraud Enforcement Harmonization Act and the COVID-19 EIDL Fraud Statute of Limitations Act, both passed in August 2022, doubled the statute of limitations for pandemic relief fraud from five years to 10 years, according to the Journal of Accountancy. That gives federal prosecutors a 10-year window to bring civil and criminal charges tied to pandemic relief fraud.
The Florida cases are part of the broader enforcement effort described above; the article also links to additional coverage.
