EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. (KMOX) - A former Illinois Fighting Illini and St. Louis Rams football player was among three people who was indicted for engaging in a $1.4 million PPP loan fraud scheme in East St. Louis, Illinois.
Dana C. Howard, 52, who played for the Rams in 1995 and for Illinois from 1990 to 1994, was indicted along with Richard Scott Myers, 63, and Glenn Sunnquist, 53, are each facing one charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and two counts of wire fraud.
Howard is also facing charges for making a false statement, two counts of bankruptcy fraud and three counts of willful failure to pay taxes, while Myers is also facing one count of monetary transaction in funds derived from a specified unlawful activity and three counts of bankruptcy fraud.
According to court documents from the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of Illinois, Howard and Myers, who were co-owners of construction company Zoie, LLC, and freight company Zade Trucking, applied for and received a PPP loan for $1.4265 million and asserted more than $1.3 million of the funds would be used to keep Zoie operational and employees paid during the pandemic.
Howard and Myers are accused of using the large loan for their personal use and to the benefit of another business they owned and not the intended use of the funds.
Howard and Myers also accused of falsely filing for bankruptcy, indicating they had little to no PPP loan funds left when in fact combined they had $450,000 available to them through cashier’s checks.
Howard and Myers are also alleged to have applied for a second PPP loan for more than $1.4 million in Jan. 2021, falsely indicating they were not involved in any bankruptcy proceedings and thereafter also sought forgiveness of the first loan.
Sunnquist, who was employed as a bookkeeper for both businesses, is accused of falsifying Zoie’s expense records and manipulating old invoices to support the loan’s forgiveness application. In Sep. 2022, SBA denied forgiveness of the loan.