Federal Grand Jury Returns Indictment Against Louisville Woman for CARES Act Fraud

Louisville, KY – A federal grand jury in Louisville, Kentucky, returned an indictment on May 17, 2023, charging a Louisville woman with three counts of wire fraud, two counts of bank fraud, and two counts of money laundering related to fraud involving the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) financial assistance program.

U.S. Attorney Michael A. Bennett of the Western District of Kentucky and Special Agent in Charge Kelly Moening of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) Great Lakes Field Division made the announcement.

According to the indictment, between April 9, 2020, and August 11, 2022, Rachel Finley, 54, filed two fraudulent applications for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, resulting in the theft of $117,990. Finley utilized the entity Private Label Vintage & Spirits, a Kentucky Limited Liability Company, to file the applications. Finley falsely exaggerated the number of employees and payroll expenses of the entity in the fraudulent applications. Finley further applied for forgiveness for one of the loans, falsely stating the amount that had been spent on payroll. 

The Small Business Administration (SBA) PPP loans were designed to provide a direct incentive for small businesses who were in operation on February 15, 2020, to keep their workers on the payroll. PPP loan proceeds were required to be used by the business on certain permissible expenses. Interest and principal on PPP loans could be entirely forgiven if the business spent the loan proceeds on the allowable expenses within a designated period and used a certain percentage of the PPP loan proceeds on payroll expenses.

Finley made her initial court appearance today before a U.S. Magistrate Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky. If convicted, Finley faces a maximum penalty of 140 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors. There is no parole in the federal system.

TIGTA is investigating the case. 

Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicole Elver is 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.

An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

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