Mississippi businessman sentenced in pandemic relief fraud

A Mississippi businessman has been sentenced to a lot more than six yrs in jail for misusing around $6 million in enterprise financial loans as a result of a coronavirus pandemic relief system.

Christopher Paul Lick of Starkville obtained the 78-thirty day period sentence Friday from U.S. District Courtroom Judge Glen H. Davidson. The sentencing took location in Oxford nearly two months just after Lick pleaded guilty to wire fraud.

Alternatively than use the income for his organizations, Lick admitted working with it for private investments in the stock marketplace and to obtain a home valued at more than $1 million, in accordance to a information launch Monday from Clay Joyner, the U.S. attorney for northern Mississippi.

“The sentence imposed in this situation was properly deserved,” Joyner said. “For far more than two many years, the defendant was living lavishly on taxpayer dollars though millions of People in america have been battling for the duration of the pandemic.”

Lick submitted fraudulent mortgage purposes to banking institutions that ended up giving loans as element of the Paycheck Defense Application, in accordance to court data. The information clearly show Lick owned and managed 4 firms, together with Aspen River Candle Co., primarily based in Columbus, Mississippi. Joyner reported Lick admitted overstating the number of personnel and payroll fees to obtain income.

Alternatively than use the Paycheck Protection Program cash for his enterprises, Lick admitted he acquired a home valued at a lot more than $1 million and made use of some of the funds for private investments in the inventory market, the news release claimed.

Paycheck Protection Program loans had been certain by the Little Small business Administration underneath the federal Coronavirus Help, Relief and Economic Security Act.

Jermicha Fomby, specific agent in demand of the FBI field workplace in Jackson, explained in the news launch that Lick “took quite proactive steps to defraud the U. S. Government and the citizens of this country.”