Tuscaloosa Man Gets 7 Years in Prison for Defrauding COVID Relief Program
A Tuscaloosa man has been sentenced to seven years in federal prison after he allegedly defrauded the government of more than $200,000 in COVID relief funds.
In a Thursday press release, the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Northern District of Alabama said 41-year-old Quincy Doss, a Tuscaloosa man, submitted fraudulent applications to the Paycheck Protection Program and received two loans worth more than $220,000.
Between April and November 2021, Doss reportedly lied about his business, its employees and plans for the PPP loan, U.S. Attorney Prim F. Escalona said.
“The defendant defrauded a program intended to assist small business owners and their hard-working employees who suffered as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic,” U.S. Attorney Escalona said. “My office remains committed to investigating, prosecuting, and seeking stiff custodial sentences for those who took advantage of a national crisis to line their own pockets.”
Doss reportedly pleaded guilty to wire fraud in June and was sentenced to 84 months in prison by Chief U.S. District Court Judge L. Scott Coogler Thursday.
Doss got 60 months for the loan fraud and another 24 for allegedly committing the crime while he was on supervised release for other, unrelated federal crimes. He will serve the sentences consecutively, not concurrently, and spend seven years in prison.
The case was investigated by FBI agents led by Acting Special Agent in Charge Felix A. Rivera-Esparra.
“Greed drove Doss to enrich himself by defrauding a government program intended to provide relief and ease the pain of COVID-19 economic restraints on working Americans,” Rivera said. “The sentence handed down today should serve as a message that the FBI and our partners will not relent in holding accountable those who exploit the PPP and other federal programs for personal gain.”
Federal, state and local law enforcement continue to investigate reports of fraud related to coronavirus assistance programs -- read more at https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus/combatingfraud.
Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at: https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.