A federal indictment was unsealed today charging Jabari Kadar Long with defrauding the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) by submitting fraudulent loan applications to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) during the coronavirus pandemic, announced Jerome F. Gorgon, Jr.
Gorgon was joined in the announcement by Jared Murphey, Acting Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations-Detroit and Karen Wingerd, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigations Detroit Field Office.
Long, 45, is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of wire fraud affecting a financial institution, and one count of money laundering arising out of his participation in the scheme. The indictment alleges that, during the coronavirus pandemic, Long worked with co-conspirators to illegally obtain money through PPP and EIDL applications for businesses that were ineligible for such loans. Specifically, the indictment alleges that Long himself applied for and received $2,187,000 for a business called “Priceless Preservations Construction.” In his PPP loan application, Long claimed that Priceless Preservations had 50 employees and an average monthly payroll of $875,000. The indictment alleges that in truth, Priceless Preservations Construction had few, if any, employees and little to no payroll expenses. In total, Long fraudulently received over $3 million from these programs.
An indictment is merely a formal charge and is not evidence of guilt. Every defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. It is the burden of the government to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Sara D. Woodward. The matter is being investigated by Homeland Security Investigations and the Internal Revenue Service.