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A Waterloo man who distributed a significant amount of cocaine and obtained a fraudulent loan was sentenced October 30, 2024, to twenty years in federal prison.
Parrish Austin, age 40, from Waterloo, Iowa, received the prison term after a February 13, 2024 guilty plea to one count of conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance and one count of wire fraud.
Information disclosed at Austin’s sentencing hearing and previous related hearings showed that, beginning in late 2019 or early 2020, and continuing until October 5, 2022, Austin began distributing kilograms of cocaine every few months to Justin Cole in Waterloo. Cole then worked with Tavarious Glasper, Chris Roby, and others to redistribute the cocaine. In total, Austin was responsible for distributing at least ten kilograms of cocaine.
Information disclosed at Austin’s plea and sentencing hearings also showed that, in May 2021, Austin fraudulently obtained into his bank account a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan in the amount of $18,322 after a false and fraudulent PPP loan application was submitted with Austin’s signature. In October 2021, after Austin had received the fraudulent PPP loan into his bank account, Austin applied for and obtained forgiveness of the PPP loan.
Austin was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Chief Judge C.J. Williams. Austin was sentenced to 240 months’ imprisonment, and he was ordered to pay $18,322 in restitution. He must also serve a five‑year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.
Twelve other individuals from Waterloo previously pled guilty to their involvement in the drug trafficking organization and/or PPP fraud:
Austin is being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.
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.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Dillan Edwards and Special Assistant United States Attorney Michael Hudson and was investigated as part of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) program of the United States Department of Justice through a cooperative effort of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Drug Enforcement Administration; the Department of Homeland Security Investigations; the Tri-County Drug Enforcement Task Force consisting of the Waterloo Police Department, Cedar Falls Police Department, Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Department, Evansdale Police Department, Waverly Police Department, Hudson Police Department, La Porte City Police Department, and the Bremer County Sheriff’s Department; the Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement; and the Iowa State Patrol.
Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.
The case file number is 23‑CR‑02057‑CJW.
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