Drug trafficker returns to prison for committing PPP and other pandemic relief fraud while on supervised release

ATLANTA - Ashford Richardson has been sentenced to two and a half additional years in prison for fraudulently obtaining a Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) loan and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (“EIDL”) shortly after being released from prison on federal drug trafficking charges. He was on supervised release and subject to monitoring by the U.S. Probation Office when he committed these new crimes.

“Richardson had been released from prison for only 10 months when he orchestrated a scheme to steal more than $50,000 of pandemic relief funds that were badly needed by small businesses to continue functioning and support their employees,” said U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan. “We will continue to utilize all the tools at our disposal to identify and hold accountable individuals who commit fraud.”

“Richardson has not learned the lesson that crime doesn’t pay, and his latest crime is evidence of that. Fortunately, his scheme to steal money intended to help people struggling during the COVID pandemic was caught and he is facing justice,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge Travis Pickard, who oversees Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) operations in Georgia and Alabama. “This isn’t a victimless crime, every time a fraudster like this stole money, legitimate applicants were unable to get those funds to help themselves and their families.”

According to U.S. Attorney Buchanan, the charges and other information presented in court: In July 2013, Richardson was indicted by a federal grand jury for conspiring to distribute multiple kilograms of cocaine. After pleading guilty, he was sentenced to five years and three months in prison to be followed by four years of supervised release. In October 2019, he was released from Bureau of Prisons custody and began his term of supervised release.

In June 2020, Richardson applied for $43,400 from the EIDL program and, the following month, applied for a PPP loan of $14,635. In the applications, he claimed he owned a painting and carpentry business that had over $85,000 in revenue in 2019 but had lost more than $60,000 due to the COVID-19 disaster. Richardson also submitted a 2019 corporate tax return document to support the claimed revenue. However, those figures were false, and the tax return document was fake. The applications were ultimately approved due to his fraud, and Richardson immediately withdrew the funds in cash from his bank account. When he learned that the government was investigating him for these new crimes, he submitted more falsified documents in an effort to further conceal his crimes.

Ashford Leon Richardson, 44, of East Point, Georgia, admitted violating his terms of supervised release and committing wire fraud on June 13, 2023, and was sentenced by Senior U.S. District Judge Richard W. Story to two years and six months in prison to be followed by one additional year of supervised release. He was also ordered to repay $58,489.99 to the U.S. Small Business Administration.

This case is being investigated by Homeland Security Investigations.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Garrett L. Bradford and Sarah E. Klapman are prosecuting the case.

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 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. For more information on the Department’s response to the pandemic, please visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus

Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at: https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.

For further information please contact the U.S. Attorney’s Public Affairs Office at USAGAN.PressEmails@usdoj.gov or (404) 581-6016.  The Internet address for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia is http://www.justice.gov/usao-ndga.