Wisconsin man sentenced to prison for COVID-19 program fraud

Date: August 29, 2024

Contact: [email protected]

Madison, WI - Timothy M. O'Shea, United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced that Curtis A. Alleyne, of Almond, Wisconsin was sentenced on August 23, 2024, by U.S. District Judge William M. Conley to a year and a day in federal prison for wire fraud and money laundering associated with a COVID-19 pandemic relief program. Alleyne pleaded guilty to this charge on May 9, 2024.

On April 15, 2020, Alleyne submitted an Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) application to the Small Business Administration (SBA) for his business "Curtis A. Alleyne, Inc." Alleyne claimed the business earned gross revenue of over $500,000. He also attached forged tax documents to corroborate information in his EIDL application. Actual tax forms from the Internal Revenue Service revealed that Alleyne never filed the forged tax records that he submitted to the SBA.

SBA approved Alleyne's EIDL application and deposited $149,900 into his bank account. Investigators analyzed Alleyne's financial records and determined that Alleyne spent the illegally obtained EIDL funds on a Cadillac CT6 and other unapproved personal expenses.

In sentencing Alleyne, Judge Conley stressed the need to send a message of general deterrence to potential white-collar criminals, especially those who target government programs during a time of crisis.

As part of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC) Task Force, this investigation was conducted by the U.S. Department of Commerce - Office of Inspector General and the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigations. Assistant U.S. Attorney Chadwick M. Elgersma prosecuted this case.

The PRAC was established to promote transparency and facilitate coordinated oversight of the federal government's COVID-19 pandemic response. The PRAC's 20 member Inspectors General identify major risks that cross program and agency boundaries to detect fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement in the more than $5 trillion in COVID-19 spending, including spending via the Paycheck Protection Program, and EIDL program. This case was also supported by the PRAC's Pandemic Analytics Center of Excellence, which applies the latest advances in analytic and forensic technologies to help OIGs and law enforcement pursue data-driven pandemic relief fraud investigations.

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.