A Highlands Ranch man has been sentenced to 41 months in federal jail for defrauding COVID-19 reduction funds totaling greater than $883,000.
Daniel Stonebarger, 50, was sentenced on Thursday in U.S. District Courtroom in Denver, in line with a Friday information launch from the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace, District of Colorado.
“This defendant took cash that was supposed for use to offer emergency monetary help to small companies and people struggling antagonistic financial results attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic,” stated U.S. Lawyer Cole Finegan, within the launch. “Prosecuting pandemic fraud is a precedence of the Division of Justice and an ongoing focus for investigators right here in Colorado.”
Between April 5, 2020, and June 10, 2020, Stonebarger submitted quite a few fraudulent functions for Financial Harm Catastrophe Loans and Grants (EIDLs and EIDGs), and Paycheck Safety Program loans (PPP) via the Small Enterprise Administration (SBA), the discharge stated.
“The defendant used new and current enterprise names to use for these loans, and falsified creation dates of companies, numbers of workers, revenues, and prices,” in line with the discharge. These fraudulently obtained funds totaled $855,252.
Stonebarger additionally filed a fraudulent declare with Colorado Pandemic Unemployment Help and illegally collected $28,142 from the Colorado Division of Labor and Employment (CDLE).
Stonebarger used the ill-gotten positive factors on varied purchases together with cosmetic surgery for a relative, weight reduction, jewellery, journey, a Peloton, and journey and resort bills.
U.S. District Courtroom Choose Raymond P. Moore ordered Stonebarger to pay $794,462 in restitution to the SBA and $28,142 to the CDLE, the discharge stated. He’ll serve three years of supervised launch after his jail time period.
The Denver Division of the FBI, the U.S. Secret Service, and the Colorado Division of Labor and Employment carried out the investigation. Assistant U.S. attorneys Martha A. Paluch, Sarah H. Weiss, and Tonya S. Andrews prosecuted the case.
