Elizabethtown Woman Sentenced to Over 2 Years in Federal Prison for CARES Act Fraud

Louisville, KY – An Elizabethtown, Kentucky woman was sentenced today to 2 years and 9 months in federal prison for charges related to her submission of three fraudulent Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act applications.

U.S. Attorney Michael A. Bennett of the Western District of Kentucky, Special Agent in Charge Vince Zehme of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Office of Inspector General, and Acting Special Agent in Charge Brian Jones of the FBI Louisville Field Office made the announcement. 

According to court documents, Kelly Woods, 43, filed three fraudulent applications for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans between May 1, 2020, and December 31, 2021, resulting in the theft of $1,318,955. Woods utilized the entities Philips Healthcare LLC and LB Acquisitions LLC. Woods organized LB Acquisitions LLC after the onset of the Covid 19 pandemic. She then exaggerated the number of employees and payroll expenses of those entities in the fraudulent applications. Following release from her 2-year and 9-month sentence, Woods was ordered to serve 3 years on supervised release. There is no parole in the federal system.

Woods was also ordered to pay $1,318,988 in restitution and a $15,000 fine.

This case was investigated by the FDIC Office of Inspector General and the FBI.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nicole Elver and David Weiser prosecuted 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.

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