Cortney Merritts, a 46-year-old resident of St. Louis, Missouri, has been indicted on two counts of wire fraud. The charges stem from allegations that Merritts filed fraudulent applications with the Small Business Administration (SBA) in 2020 and 2021. These applications reportedly enabled him to obtain over $20,000 in government funds through the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program (EIDL) and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).
The indictment was disclosed by U.S. Attorney Edward Martin Jr., alongside Special Agent in Charge Amaleka McCall Brathwaite from the SBA Office of the Inspector General's Eastern Region, and FBI Special Agent in Charge Sean Ryan of the Washington Field Office Criminal and Cyber Division.
According to the indictment details, Merritts received an $8,500 EIDL loan on July 7, 2020, for his moving business named Vetted Couriers. In his application for Vetted Couriers, he certified having six employees and generating $32,000 in gross revenue between January 30, 2019, and January 30, 2020.
The following day, Merritts submitted another EIDL loan application under a sole proprietorship also named "Cortney Merritts." He allegedly claimed this business employed ten people and generated $53,000 in gross revenue during the same period. Furthermore, he requested an EIDL advance based on these false claims but was denied additional funds after the SBA identified similarities with his previous application.
On April 22, 2021, Merritts applied for a PPP loan using similar fraudulent claims about a sole proprietorship established in 2020 with $128,000 in gross income. This resulted in him receiving a $20,832 PPP loan which he allegedly used for personal expenses. By July 2022, he submitted a forgiveness application falsely stating that he spent the funds on payroll costs for ten employees. The SBA forgave both the loan amount and interest based on these representations.
The investigation is being conducted by the SBA Office of the Inspector General and FBI Washington Field Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua Rothstein and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Rami Sibay are prosecuting this case.
It is important to note that an indictment only contains allegations; defendants are considered innocent until proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt in court.