Federal Grand Jury in Paducah Indicts Oklahoma Man for CARES Act Fraud

Paducah, KY – A federal grand jury in Paducah, Kentucky returned an indictment on August 8, 2023, charging an Oklahoma man with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of wire fraud involving the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES  Act) financial assistance program.

U.S. Attorney Michael A. Bennett of the Western District of Kentucky, Special Agent in Charge Michael E. Stansbury of the FBI Louisville Field Office, and Special Agent in Charge John McCabe of the United States Army’s Criminal Investigation Division (CID) at Fort Campbell made the announcement.

According to the indictment, between February 2021 and April 29, 2021, Kendarian Quentrell Dixon, 23, of Yukon, Oklahoma, conspired with unnamed persons to file a fraudulent application for a loan from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), a financial assistance program established by the CARES Act. At the time, Dixon was a soldier in the United States Army stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Dixon received $20,833 from the loan, which he transferred to associates and spent on personal expenses.

The Small Business Administration (SBA) PPP loans were designed to provide a direct incentive for small businesses who were in operation on February 15, 2020, to keep their workers on the payroll. PPP loan proceeds were required to be used by the business on certain permissible expenses. Interest and principal on PPP loans could be entirely forgiven if the business spent the loan proceeds on the allowable expenses within a designated period and used a certain percentage of the PPP loan proceeds on payroll expenses.

Dixon made his initial court appearance today before a U.S. Magistrate Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky. If convicted, Dixon faces a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors. There is no parole in the federal system.

The FBI Paducah Satellite Office and the United States Army CID at Fort Campbell are investigating the case.

Assistant United States Attorney Raymond McGee, of the U.S. Attorney’s Paducah Branch Office, is prosecuting the case.

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, among other methods, 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 at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at: https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.

An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

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