An Alabama woman is facing decades in prison for filing several fraudulent applications to receive funds from the federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).
The feds arrested Zsa Zsa Couch, 53, on April 26 for charges related to the phony applications, according to a news release from the Department of Justice. She made her first court appearance the following day.
An indictment from a grand jury in the Middle District of Alabama claims Couch submitted six applications for over $1.6 million using false information. The Montgomery Advertiser reported she filed PPP loan applications for different types of businesses including a boutique, a hair salon and a daycare center. She also filed for a business advertised as Slim Fit Weight Loss Medical Clinic & Spa.
In each application, she lied about how many people she employed and her payroll costs so she could qualify for higher payouts. Couch used bogus tax documents to support these claims. In the Slim Fit application, she claimed there were ten employees on the payroll even though she was the only one. Two applications filed for Kidz Academy, the daycare center, contained contradictory information.
In one app, she told the feds she had 10 employees, which amounted to $74,665 in payroll expenses. In the other papers, she added five more employees and reported a $120,000 payroll.
The DOJ says Couch failed to inform the government of the multiple applications she filed for one business or that she owned multiple companies. She eventually received $609,687.47 from the PPP loan program, which she spent on her family and luxury cars. Business owners are supposed to use the PPP loan to offset payroll costs and assist with job retention.
Couch was hit with a slew of charges including multiple counts of bank fraud, money laundering and making false statements to a federally insured bank. If convicted, she faces a maximum of 30 years in federal prison.
