East TN Man Sentenced For Wire Fraud

An East Tennessee man is headed to prison for the next 40 months after being found guilty of wire fraud. Federal prosecutors say that 41 year old Chad Thomas of Blountville after he pled guilty to submitting three fraudulent Payroll Protection Program of “PPP” loan applications that included false information about payroll expenses and phony supporting documents. Those PPP loans were designed to help businesses meet expenses like payroll during the Covid-19 pandemic. Thomas submitted three fraudulent PPP loan applications and obtained a total of $307,700 in fraudulent loan proceeds. As part of his scheme, Thomas submitted false payroll information and included fictitious supporting forms as part of his applications, including IRS forms. One of the loan applications was for Kingdom of God, Inc. Thomas falsely represented that the company had 26 employees and an average monthly payroll of $83,000. Thomas also included a monthly payroll journal that showed his family members, minor children, and several nationally known religious figures were paid employees of Kingdom of God, Inc. Neither the state of Tennessee nor the IRS had any record of Kingdom of God, Inc. ever paying any employees. Thomas will be on probation for three years after getting out of prison.