FRESNO - Four California agricultural companies and their owner have agreed to settle allegations that they violated the False Claims Act (FCA) and the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act (FIRREA) by knowingly submitting false information in support of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan applications, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced.
The companies, which grow, harvest, process, pack, ship, and sell processed and fresh tomatoes, among other crops, are Mendota Land Co., Sweetwood Farm Co. LLC, Sweetwood Farm Inc., and Seasholtz Co. LLC. The companies and their owner John Seasholtz (collectively, “Seasholtz”) are alleged to have improperly inflated the employee headcount on PPP loan applications by impermissibly including non-employee contract workers who were, in fact, employed by other, unrelated entities.
The settlement resolves allegations that including non-employees caused Seasholtz to receive approximately $1.8 million in excess PPP funds. Seasholtz previously repaid the excess PPP loan funds to the lender, thereby relieving the U.S. Small Business Administration of liability for approximately $1.8 million in loan guarantees. As a part of the settlement announced today, Seasholtz agreed to pay approximately $400,000 in damages and penalties under the FCA and approximately $200,000 in civil penalties under FIRREA.
“PPP loans were intended to provide critical relief to small businesses,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “The department is committed to pursuing those who knowingly obtained PPP or other COVID‑19 assistance funds to which they were not entitled.”
“Paycheck Protection Program funds have helped qualified businesses throughout the Central Valley that were negatively impacted by the pandemic,” said U.S. Attorney Talbert. “The U.S. Attorney’s Office invested significant time and resources in this investigation and will continue to do so to ensure that PPP funds only go to those who are eligible.”
“Providing accurate information when applying for the SBA’s vital disaster relief programs is the individual responsibility of the applicant,” said Special Agent in Charge Weston King of SBA OIG’s Western Region. “This settlement demonstrates that wrongdoing will find its way into the open, and those responsible will be held accountable. I want to that the U.S. Attorney’s office and our law enforcement partners for their support and dedication to pursuing justice in this case.”
Congress created the PPP in March 2020 as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, to provide emergency financial support to the millions of Americans suffering economic hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The CARES Act authorized billions of dollars in forgivable loans to small businesses struggling to pay employees and other business expenses. When applying for PPP loans, borrowers were required to certify the truthfulness and accuracy of all information provided in their loan applications, including their number of employees and average monthly payroll.
The settlement resolved a lawsuit filed under the qui tam or whistleblower provision of the False Claims Act, which permits private parties to file suit on behalf of the United States for false claims and share in a portion of the government’s recovery. The qui tam lawsuit was filed by Bell Hill LLC and is captioned United States ex rel. Bell Hill, LLC v. John Seasholtz, et al., No. 1:20-cv-942 (E.D. Cal.). There has been no determination regarding the amount of the recovery to be paid to Bell Hill, LLC.
The resolution obtained in this matter was the result of a coordinated effort between the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California and the DOJ Civil Division’s Commercial Litigation Branch, Fraud Section, with assistance from the SBA’s Office of General Counsel and the SBA Office of Inspector General.
On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with agencies across the government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. The task force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with administering relief programs to prevent fraud by, among other methods, augmenting and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts.
The claims resolved by the settlement are allegations only, and there has been no determination of liability.
