WHEELING, WEST VIRGINIA – A former Wheeling business owner has admitted to fraud totaling nearly $300,000 in COVID relief funds, announced U.S. Attorney Matthew L. Harvey.
Bradley Temple, 48, of Delray Beach, Florida (formerly of Wheeling, WV), pled guilty to unlawful money transactions. According to court documents and statements made in court, Temple, who operated Righteous Brother’s Trucking, applied for and received both a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan and an Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) authorized by the CARES Act to assist small businesses and individuals who suffered substantial financial hardship as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Temple made false representations regarding the business to obtain $277,456 in loans. Temple then used those funds for personal or non-permissible expenses, including obtaining a $40,000 cashier’s check to purchase a vehicle.
Temple is facing up to 10 years in prison and will be required to pay restitution. A federal district court judge will determine the sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Conklin is prosecuting the case on behalf of the government.
This case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigations and National Aeronautics and Space Administration Office of Inspector General (NASA OIG). NASA OIG is an active member of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC) Fraud Task Force. The PRAC was established to promote transparency and facilitate coordinated oversight of the federal government’s COVID-19 pandemic response. The PRAC’s 20 member Inspectors General identify major risks that cross program and agency boundaries to detect fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement in the more than $5 trillion in COVID-19 spending, including spending via the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program. This case was also supported by the PRAC’s Pandemic Analytics Center of Excellence, which applies the latest advances in analytic and forensic technologies to help OIGs and law enforcement pursue data-driven pandemic relief fraud investigations.
U.S. Magistrate Judge James P. Mazzone presided.
