Tampa man sentenced to 33 months in federal prison for wire fraud, money laundering in misuse of $500,000 COVID-19 small business loan

Date: Aug. 14, 2024

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Tampa, FL - United States District Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell has sentenced Barrett Purvis, of Tampa, to 33 months in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release for wire fraud and money laundering. The court also ordered Purvis to pay $499,900 in restitution to the U.S. Small Business Administration. Purvis was found guilty after a trial on May 1, 2024.

According to testimony and evidence presented at trial, Purvis applied for and received a $500,000 Economic Injury Disaster Loan from the Small Business Administration during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in May 2021. Although he applied on behalf of a legitimate small business he owned and operated, Purvis never intended to use any of the loan proceeds on working capital as required by the terms of the loan agreement. Instead, Purvis spent approximately half of the proceeds on gambling debt and the rest on other personal debt, including debt incurred on his girlfriend's three credit cards. Within two weeks of receiving the loan, Purvis had used nearly all the proceeds on personal expenses, unrelated to any legitimate business.

"COVID-19 relief programs were meant to serve as a lifeline to those struggling during uncertain times," said Ron Loecker, Special Agent in Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation's Tampa Field Office. "Using these funds to instead pay for a gambling habit is an obvious and despicable abuse of a well-intentioned program. To any fraudsters who exploited these programs for personal gain, it's a safe bet that we will be holding you accountable."

This case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS CI). It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Candace Garcia Rich.

In May 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. The task force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with administering relief programs to prevent fraud by augmenting and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts.

CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.