Maryland correctional officer claimed fake income to secure $19,000 PPP loan, investigation finds
A Maryland correctional officer is accused of claiming fake income to acquire a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan, according to the Office of the Inspector General.
According to the investigation, the officer applied for a PPP loan on May 21, 2021, after he was hired by the Baltimore County Department of Corrections. The officer's name was redacted from the OIG report.
The PPP loan program was created by the federal government during the COVID-19 pandemic, to help small businesses meet payroll and other expenses.
Officer claimed Lyft earnings
According to the OIG report, the officer said on his application that he was an independent contractor who had been operating a taxi service since 2016. The application claimed an average monthly pay of $7,855.58 from his work in the service industry, which is equivalent to $94,266.96 a year.
The officer received a PPP loan $19,638, per the report.
Now four years later, on April 25, 2025, the OIG interviewed the officer about that loan.
From August 2016 through December 2016, the officer said he drove part-time for Lyft. He was then fired by Lyft because he had too many negative reviews about the condition of his vehicle, per the report.
A few months before the 2025 interview, the officer's Lyft account was reactivated. The officer told the OIG he had last driven for Lyft a few weeks prior to the interview, on one of his days off.
Despite this, the officer had not accrued any earnings from Lyft, according to the investigation.
How he got the PPP loan
The officer told the OIG he first heard about the PPP program from a person he referred to as "the middleman." He said he did not remember the "middleman's" name or how they met, or if it was a man or woman, per the report.
The "middleman" put the officer in touch with the person who got him the PPP loan, who he referred to as the "loan filer." The officer said he was a Nigerian man from either Texas or California.
The officer said he paid the loan filer "$1000 or possibly more" to file a PPP loan on the officer's behalf.
In 2021, the officer was told that the PPP loan reflected that he had been in the taxi service industry since 2016. According to the OIG report, he said he did not recall telling the loan filer that he made about $7,855 each month driving for Lyft or Uber.
He said he referred to his ride share driving as a "side hustle," and did not believe he did anything wrong by accepting the loan.
The officer said that in addition to personal information, he may have provided the loan filer with an Employee Identification Number linked to a company that purchases vehicles and ships them to Nigeria.
The officer said he used the loan funds to pay credit card bills racked up from expenses related to his company, including purchasing vehicles at auctions, hiring tow trucks to transport the vehicles, and paying shipping costs for the vehicles.
According to Small Business Association records, the PPP loan was forgiven in September 2021 – prior to making any repayments.
The OIG said it believes the correctional officer intentionally misrepresented facts and made false statements to secure the PPP loan and that it intends refer the facts of the case to law enforcement.