A California man and a Pennsylvania partner allegedly turned defunct businesses into a $52 million pandemic tax credit machine. The IRS mailed the checks. The checks cleared.
Elaine Angene Escoe allegedly ran ninety fake relief applications through four federal programs, then disappeared into an alias in Jamaica. The paperwork was waiting when she came back.
Jedrek Upton walked into federal court in Sacramento with a Ferrari lease, a Lamborghini lease, and a $2.7 million property behind him. All of it, prosecutors said, was paid for with pandemic relief money meant for workers who did not exist.
Phillip Collins of Robeson County, North Carolina pleaded guilty on June 29 to wire fraud conspiracy in a COVID-era SBA loan scheme. The pattern is small, ordinary, and still running through other names.
Philip Camino built restaurants in three states and a fraud across more than twenty PPP and EIDL applications. On May 28, a federal judge called it what it was. Just greed.