East Tennessee Woman Guilty Of Wire Fraud

Thursday A Knoxville woman entered a guilty plea to one count of executing a wire fraud scheme in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee in Knoxville. 41 year old Porsha Tims Bush faces a term of imprisonment of up to 20 years, a fine of up to$250,000, and a term of supervised release of up to three years. As part of the written plea agreement filed with the court, Bush waived an indictment by a federal grand jury and agreed to plead guilty to one count of wire fraud. According to court filings, from March to June 2020, Bush applied for ten loans for $547,286 through the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program. Bush submitted false and fraudulent applications under the names of various companies that either did not qualify for COVID-19 relief funds or that did not exist. Bush submitted nine fraudulent applications to financial institutions seeking PPP funds and one fraudulent application to the SBA seeking EIDL funds. As part of her fraud scheme, Bush submitted fabricated supporting records and made false statements about the number of employees she had, the revenue she generated, and the amount of payroll expenses she incurred. Bush also made false statements about the corporate entities and the intended use of the loan proceeds. She will be sentenced in January.