Pandemic loans paid for spas, fine dining and an Aruba trip. An Atlanta man is now serving 10 years in prison.

An Atlanta man will spend more than ten years in federal prison for orchestrating a scheme to steal over $3 million in fraudulent pandemic loans.

Prosecutors say 37-year-old Ian Jackson, who had been convicted of fraud felonies twice before, came up with a conspiracy, recruiting nine business owners to apply for COVID-19 Paycheck Protection Program loans using fake payroll information and forged IRS tax forms. 

After each business received $300,000 in PPP funds, the business owners wrote "payroll" checks to individuals who did not work for their businesses and then kept or split the stolen government funds. Jackson received a cut of all of it, authorities say. 

In addition to the PPP conspiracy, Jackson pleaded guilty to using a fake Georgia driver's license to apply for over $200,000 in Economic Injury Disaster Loans and nearly $500,000 in PPP loans. Court documents show that he spent the money at restaurants, on spa services, and on a trip to Aruba.  

"Jackson recruited accomplices to manipulate pandemic relief programs, stealing more than $3 million earmarked for small business owners who suffered from the pandemic," said U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg in a statement. "Through the persistent efforts of law enforcement, we will continue to hold accountable the fraudsters who exploited the COVID pandemic to steal from taxpayers." 

Jackson was sentenced to ten years and ten months in prison to be followed by five years of supervised release.