A Mississippi couple has been sentenced to nearly 20 years in federal prison for leading a multimillion-dollar Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) fraud scheme, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Mississippi announced Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge Sharion Aycock sentenced Lakisha Pearson, 48, of Holly Springs, to over six years in prison for conspiracy to commit wire fraud. This sentence will run consecutively to a prior 52-month sentence she received in January for a separate tax fraud case, bringing her total prison time to 10 ½ years.
Robert Pearson, 54, also of Holly Springs, was sentenced to more than nine years in prison for his involvement in the PPP fraud scheme. Both defendants were ordered to pay $3,364,052 in restitution for the losses related to the fraud.
According to court documents, the Pearsons owned and operated Unity Tax Express, where they helped multiple individuals fraudulently obtain PPP loans in exchange for kickbacks. The applications they submitted contained false claims about the number of employees and business operations.
In a related case, Judge Michael P. Mills sentenced Lakisha Pearson in January to 52 months for mail fraud related to false IRS Employee Retention Credit claims and ordered her to pay $15,942,586.77 in restitution.
U.S. Attorney Clay Joyner emphasized that investigations into PPP fraud are ongoing, stating that those who defrauded the American people during the COVID-19 pandemic will continue to face legal consequences.
