Cortney Merritts, the husband of former Democrat Consultant Cori Bush (MO) was indicted on wire fraud prices associated to the Paycheck Safety Program throughout the Covid pandemic.
Ed Martin, the Performing US Legal professional for DC, unsealed the indictment towards Cortney Merritts on Thursday.
Merritts is accused of mendacity on his purposes for Covid Paycheck Safety Program funds (PPP) and Financial Harm Catastrophe Loans (EIDL).
Merritts was hit with 2 counts of wire fraud for falsifying purposes to acquire greater than $20,000 in loans.
“Cortney Merritts, 46, of St. Louis, Missouri, was charged at present by federal indictment with two counts of wire fraud for allegedly submitting fraudulent purposes with the Small Enterprise Administration in 2020 and 2021 that allowed him to gather greater than $20,000 in authorities funds underneath the Financial Harm Catastrophe Mortgage Program (EIDL) and Paycheck Safety Program (PPP),” the DOJ introduced.
“Based on the indictment, on July 7, 2020, Merritts acquired an $8,500 EIDL mortgage from the SBA for a transferring enterprise he operated that he known as Vetted Couriers. Within the software he submitted for Vetted Couriers, Merritts licensed that his enterprise had six workers and had generated $32,000 in gross income between January 30, 2019 and January 30, 2020,” the DOJ mentioned.
“On July 8, 2020, Merritts submitted one other software to the SBA for an EIDL mortgage within the identify of a sole proprietorship he known as “Courtney Merritts.” On this EIDL software, Merritts fraudulently claimed to have a enterprise that employed ten folks and generated $53,000 in gross income between January 30, 2019 and January 30, 2020. Along with an EIDL mortgage, Merritts additionally requested an EIDL advance of as much as $10,000 primarily based on his false declare that he had 10 workers. The SBA rejected Merritts’ try to receive further EIDL funds after figuring out that his July 2020 software was practically equivalent to the prior one he submitted,” the DOJ mentioned.
The Justice Division was investigating Cori Bush’s 2024 reelection marketing campaign after a authorities watchdog group, has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Fee (FEC) to analyze marketing campaign funds of $62,359 from Bush to her husband Cortney Merritts for safety providers.
This can be a separate investigation and the fees unsealed on Thursday are unrelated to the safety providers probe. The standing of this investigation is unclear.
