Cortney Merritts, a 46-year-old resident of St. Louis, Missouri, has been indicted on two counts of wire fraud. The charges stem from allegations that he submitted fraudulent applications to the Small Business Administration (SBA) in 2020 and 2021, enabling him to secure over $20,000 in government funds through the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program (EIDL) and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).
The indictment was announced by U.S. Attorney Edward Martin Jr., along with Special Agent in Charge Amaleka McCall Brathwaite of the SBA Office of the Inspector General's Eastern Region, and FBI Special Agent in Charge Sean Ryan from the Washington Field Office Criminal and Cyber Division.
According to the indictment details, Merritts allegedly received an $8,500 EIDL loan on July 7, 2020, for a moving business named Vetted Couriers. In his application for this loan, he certified that his business employed six people and had generated $32,000 in gross revenue between January 30, 2019, and January 30, 2020.
The following day, July 8, 2020, Merritts submitted another EIDL loan application under his own name as a sole proprietorship. He claimed that this business employed ten people and generated $53,000 in gross revenue during the same period. He also requested an EIDL advance based on these claims. However, the SBA rejected this second application after finding it nearly identical to his previous submission.
Further allegations state that on April 22, 2021, Merritts applied for a PPP loan using similar false representations about a sole proprietorship he claimed to have started in 2020. This resulted in him receiving a $20,832 PPP loan which he allegedly used for personal purposes. In July 2022, Merritts submitted a loan forgiveness application falsely claiming payroll expenses for ten employees at the time of receiving the PPP loan. Based on these representations, the SBA forgave both the principal amount of $20,832 and interest totaling $254.03.
The investigation is being conducted by the Small Business Administration Office of the Inspector General alongside the FBI Washington Field Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua Rothstein and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Rami Sibay are prosecuting the case.
It is important to note that an indictment is merely an allegation; all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in court.
