A Decatur man will go to prison after being convicted of a scheme to defraud a federal COVID-19 relief program for his own benefit.
Brandon Ridge, 37, pleaded guilty to submitting fraudulent applications for nearly $450,000 in pandemic relief funds, according to a news release by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia. He was able to get roughly $162,000, which he partially used to buy a Range Rover.
Ridge improperly obtained the loans through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which gave billions to small businesses across the country to help them retain employees and function during the pandemic. Using his company Barking Rose Solutions, he submitted two PPP loan applications that contained fabricated bank statements, according to the release. One loan was denied, while the other was granted.
“Ridge’s personal greed affects every tax paying citizen in this country and takes away from government funds intended to provide relief to small business and employees who desperately need it during this pandemic,” Chris Hacker, special agent in charge of FBI Atlanta, said in the release.
Ridge was sentenced to two years in prison followed by three years of supervised release. He also had to forfeit the Range Rover and more than $100,000 that was seized from his bank accounts. The FBI and IRS investigated his case.
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