Charleston County Man Pleads Guilty in Federal Court to Defrauding Small Business Administration

CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA — Carl Ulm, 67, of Charleston, pleaded guilty in federal court to defrauding the Small Business Association (SBA) to receive a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

Evidence presented in court established that Ulm applied to the SBA, through a third-party lender, to receive a PPP loan that contained materially false representations. At the time he applied for the loan, Ulm had sold the assets of his business, Anchor Restoration Contractors, LLC, to another entity. He therefore did not have payroll obligations or business expenses. The total amount of the PPP loan that Ulm received was $204,132.50. 

Ulm is subject to a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.00.  United States District Judge Bruce Howe Hendricks accepted the guilty plea and will sentence Ulm after receiving and reviewing a sentencing report prepared by the United States Probation Office.

On May 17, 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. For more information on the department’s response to the pandemic, please visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus.

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 via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Amy F. Bower prosecuted the case.