FLORIDA – A Florida man pleaded guilty on Tuesday to charges related to COVID relief fraud and money laundering.
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According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida (USAO), Kenneth Steven Landers, 57, of Jacksonville, pleaded guilty to wire fraud and engaging in an illegal monetary transaction. Landers faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in federal prison. A sentencing date has not yet been set.
According to the plea agreement, during 2020 and 2021, Landers applied for federally backed Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans 10 times, requesting a total of $1,410,000. He reportedly submitted the applications on behalf of four different corporate entities that he controlled, specifically, the American Fallen Veterans Service Project Inc., Tire Empire LLC, Maypops LLC, and Florida United Inc.
In support of each application, Landers is said to have electronically submitted false information and documents, including fictitious or altered Internal Revenue Service tax forms.
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Notwithstanding Landers’s use of fraudulent documents, seven of his ten PPP loan applications were approved and funded in the total amount of $910,000, which was deposited into financial accounts that he controlled.
According to the USAO, rather than use the loan proceeds exclusively to pay employees or for other allowable expenses under the PPP, Landers used funds for his personal benefit. For example, he reportedly paid off the mortgages on his home and a business property, purchased an 18kt gold Rolex watch, and bought a vintage Jaguar XKE Roadster.
He also is said to have written checks to himself, transferred funds electronically to personal accounts, paid down personal debt, and made approximately $113,000 in cash withdrawals of funds traceable to PPP loan proceeds.
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As part of his plea agreement, Landers agreed to forfeit $910,000, the proceeds of the wire fraud, as well as two pieces of real estate that he purchased or funded with the proceeds, the USAO said.
The case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Mai Tran and Michael J. Coolican.
