ATLANTA — Maurice Lawson was sentenced to federal prison for receiving nearly half a million dollars by filing multiple fraudulent applications for a Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) and an Economic Injury Disaster Loan (“EIDL”).
“Congress passed the Paycheck Protection Program to provide emergency financial assistance to millions of Americans suffering the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Lawson used a federal self-disclosure program to get relief into the hands of American companies as quickly as possible,” said US Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan. “His crimes are making it harder for the United States to provide disaster relief in the next major emergency. This office, in coordination with our federal, state and local law enforcement partners, is committed to holding individuals accountable for their conduct who attempted to exploit this important economic safety net.”
“Lawson used his position during an unprecedented national pandemic to steal vital taxpayer funds to bring relief to legitimate small businesses and employees who desperately needed it,” said Jerome Winkle, the HUD inspector general’s acting special agent. “HUD OIG remains true to its commitment to work with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and law enforcement partners to aggressively prosecute those engaged in activities that threaten the integrity of HUD and other federal programs.”
“We remain committed to fighting fraud through the Paycheck Protection Program,” said Edwin Bonano, special agent in charge of the Southeast Region of the FHFA-OIG. “FHFA-OIG will pursue criminals who have devised fraudulent schemes to divert PPP funds from those they are supposed to be helping until they are held fully accountable.”
According to US Attorney Buchanan, the charges and other information presented in court: Between April 2020 and March 2021, Lawson applied for at least seven PPP or EIDL loans for six different companies. The applications contained a variety of false information, including false 940 and 941 tax forms, fake Social Security cards, fraudulent addresses, fake average monthly payslips, and false claims of employment from five to 12 employees. In total, Lawson applied for $537,120 in loan proceeds and received $419,020. Among the companies requesting these loans was Coastal Drape, LLC — the same company Lawson used during his mortgage fraud conspiracy, for which he was sentenced to three years of state probation in March 2021. Lawson received funds from one of the fraudulent COVID-19 loan applications days after his mortgage fraud conviction.
Maurice Lawson, 39, of Lithia Springs, Georgia, was sentenced to one year and nine months in prison followed by three years of supervised release and was ordered to pay $437,870.07 in damages. Lawson was convicted of these allegations on May 16, 2023 after pleading guilty.
This case was investigated by the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of the Inspector General and the Office of the Inspector General of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
Assistant US Attorney Alison Prout led the case.
On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to pool the Department of Justice’s resources in collaboration with agencies across government to increase efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. The task force increases efforts to identify and prosecute the most criminal domestic and international criminals and assists agencies charged with administering fraud prevention assistance programs, including through the enhancement and integration of existing coordination mechanisms, identification of resources and fraud detection techniques Stakeholders and their plans, and the sharing and use of information and lessons learned from previous enforcement efforts. For more information on the Department’s response to the pandemic, visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus
Anyone with information about suspected fraud related to COVID-19 may report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) hotline at 866-720-5721 or through the NCDF web complaint form at https:// /www .justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.
For more information, please contact the US Attorney’s Office of Public Affairs at USAGAN.PressEmails@usdoj.gov or (404) 581-6016. The web address of the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia is http://www.justice.gov/usao-ndga.
