A U.S. Army soldier stationed at Fort Stewart, Georgia has been sentenced to federal prison for leading a prolific fraud scheme in which she and others illegally raked in millions of dollars from COVID-19 relief programs and federal student loan forgiveness.
Chief Warrant Officer 2 Dara Buck, 39, who also used the alias Dara Butler was sentenced to 42 months in prison on Jan. 9 after previously pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, said David H. Estes, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia, in a release.
U.S. District Court Judge R. Stan Baker also ordered Buck to pay restitution of $3,680,247 and to serve three years of supervised release at the completion of her prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.
“While serving in the U.S. Army, Dara Buck engaged in a massive scheme to defraud the taxpayers of the nation she was sworn to serve,” said Estes. “With our law enforcement partners, we are committed to identifying and holding accountable those who defraud COVID-19 relief programs to feed their self-serving greed.”
As described in court documents, Buck led a conspiracy to fraudulently obtain funding from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), and to secure the fraudulent discharge of federal student loans using falsified disability claims.
Buck admitted submitting more than 150 fraudulent PPP loan applications to the Small Business Administrating for herself and others in the conspiracy, resulting in more than $3 million in fraudulent disbursements from banks to members of the conspiracy. Buck directly received fraudulently obtained PPP funding or was paid by conspirators for submitting their fraudulent applications.
Related
Conspirators also paid Buck to submit falsified Department of Veterans Affairs certifications for total and permanent disability to the Department of Education in order to fraudulently secure the discharge of more than a dozen student loans totaling more than $1 million.
“Individuals that conspire to defraud Small Business Administration programs will be brought to justice and face the consequences of their illicit activity,” said SBA Office of Inspector General’s Eastern Region Special Agent in Charge Amaleka McCall-Brathwaite.
Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF web complaint form.
Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com.
Related
