by Cole Lauterbach
Four individuals will be spending years behind bars for fraudulently obtaining tens of millions of dollars by posing as business owners asking for COVID-19 aid, a now-common finding nationwide.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Arizona District announced Thursday that Willie Mitchell, aka Blu Mitchell, 41, of Phoenix, Sean Swaringer, 57, of Peoria, Kimberly Coleman, 39, of Mesa, and Jason Coleman, 41, of Mesa, were sentenced for their parts in a network of fraudulent applications.
The four applied to the federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program, meant to supplement small businesses and independent contractors amid months of government-ordered shutdowns due to the spread of COVID-19.
“Kimberly Coleman and her husband, Jason Coleman, collectively prepared and submitted approximately two dozen fraudulent PPP loan applications in an attempt to receive more than $30 million in PPP funds,” the release said. “They were successful in at least 10 of those submissions and fraudulently obtained more than $13 million in PPP funds.”
The D.A.’s office said the Colemans spent the funds on luxury vehicles and real estate properties, personal property from several high-end retail outlets, vacation, and jewelry.
Mitchell obtained $9,470,900 in loans after recruiting others to help him, the release said. He spent the taxpayer dollars on a vehicle, multiple properties, and vacations with the PPP funds.
Swaringer used Cryotherapy for Veterans and Cryoworld Therapy, LLC. – in addition to applications filed by 10 others he’d recruited – to fraudulently obtain millions of dollars. He was ordered to pay back $3.8 million.
All four defendants will serve five years of supervised release once their prison terms end.
PPP fraud investigations have led to arrests and convictions nationwide in recent months.
Indictments unsealed last month charged a St. Louis County woman with three counts of bank fraud and two counts of wire fraud involving the Paycheck Protection Program after she allegedly received $104,000 in federal assistance loans.
A convicted felon in Illinois stole more than $400,000 in pandemic relief while still serving a sentence for tax fraud and identity theft.
One report identified nearly $38 million in potentially improper or fraudulent pandemic loans were obtained using the Social Security Numbers of dead people.
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Cole Lauterbach is a managing editor for The Center Square covering the western United States. For more than a decade, Cole has produced award-winning content on both radio and television.
