Houston man sent to prison for $3M PPP loan fraud scheme

HOUSTON – A 47-year-old man has been ordered to federal prison following his conviction of wire fraud, announced U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani along with Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.

Scott Jackson Davis pleaded guilty May 26, 2022.

Today, U.S. District Judge David Hittner sentenced Davis to a total of 102 months in federal prison to be immediately followed by three years of supervised release. The court also ordered him to pay restitution in the amount of $3,002,655.13.

At the hearing, the court heard evidence that at the time of the offense, Davis was on supervised release for another wire fraud conviction and had only been out of prison for just over four months when he began submitting the fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) applications. As such, Judge Hittner noted Davis presented a danger to the community during the hearing.

In 2020, Davis fraudulently received $3.3 million in PPP funds through three fraudulent loan applications submitted to multiple financial institutions. Davis fabricated ownership of three businesses - Skilled Trade Investments LP, Skilled Trade Staffing LLC and Skilled Trade Investments Group - which he claimed staffed numerous employees and had significant payroll.

However, the businesses actually had few, if any, employees and little to no payroll if it existed at all. Davis used forged IRS documentation to corroborate the vastly inflated business expenses.

Davis also lied on each of the PPP applications, indicating he had never been convicted of a felony. In fact, he is a prior felon who was on supervised release for an unrelated 2017 wire fraud conviction.  

Davis spent a large portion of the fraudulently acquired PPP loan funds on private jet travel, real estate, jewelry, guns and luxury vehicles.

Davis will remain in custody pending transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.

The FBI and Small Business Administration - Office of Inspector General  conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney John Wakefield and Trial Attorney Edward Emokpae of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section prosecuted the case.