Colorado businessman ordered to repay $1.2 million received through COVID loans

A Denver man was recently ordered to serve two and a half years in prison and return more than $1.2 million he was given to support his six businesses during the COVID pandemic. 

Steve Randall Howe, 74, was sentenced in a Denver federal courtroom immediately after pleading guilty last week to one count of bank fraud and one count of money laundering.  

Howe received 10 loans for his six businesses from six different banks through the emergency Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), according to his plea agreement. That program was started by the U.S. Small Business Administration in March 2020 to provide financial assistance to employers. It ended in May 2021.

Howe also applied for - and was granted - loan forgiveness, meaning he did not need to repay the debt. All 10 of the loans were forgiven before Howe had made a single payment on them, federal prosecutors noted in the plea agreement.  

Those loans totaled $1,243,799.91. 

Later, investigators from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service determined Howe had falsified information on all the applications. Howe reportedly claimed financial obligations toward certain numbers of employees and their monthly payrolls. But, as the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Colorado stated in a press release, "Most of the businesses had no employees or business function."

The applications also contained fabricated payroll and tax documents which had not been filed with the Internal Revenue Service, according to the prosecutors. 

Howe used the ill-gotten funds to purchase a home, to buy retails items, subscriptions and legal services, and for travel expenses, according to details of the plea agreement. 

All of Howe's assets are subject to forfeiture in order to pay $1,253,691.84 back to the banks, and to pay a $15,000 fine leveled against him by the judge, according to the plea agreement. 

"During the pandemic, financial assistance programs were created to keep businesses and employees afloat, not to line the pockets of greedy opportunists," FBI Denver Special Agent in Charge Amanda Koldjeski stated in a press release announcing Howe's sentence.

Five of Howe's businesses were based in Denver, the sixth in Fort Collins.   

CBS Colorado reached out to Howe for comment and has not received a response.