Slidell Man Charged with Making False Statements to The United States Small Business Administration

NEW ORLEANS – United States Attorney Duane A. Evans announced that DEAN MEILLEUR, age 57, a resident of Slidell, La., was charged on March 13, 2024, with making or using false writings or documents to the United States Small Business Adminstration (SBA), in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1001(a)(3).

According to the charging document, MEILLEUR, to obtain Economic Impact Disaster Loans (“EIDL”), submitted false writings and documents to the SBA. In his EIDL applications, among other things, MEILLEUR falsely represented that he was the owner of a trucking business formed in 2017 and that he was eligible for EIDL funds. As a result of these false submissions, MEILLEUR obtained $147,400 from SBA. 

MEILLEUR faces up to five years in prison, up to three years of supervised release, up to a $250,000 fine, and a $100 mandatory special assessment fee.  

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.

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

U.S. Attorney Evans commended the Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation for their work on this case. Assistant United States Attorney Andre J. Lagarde of the Public Integrity Unit is in charge of the prosecution.