Tulsa Man Sentenced for Applying for Paycheck Protection Program Loans under False Pretenses

United States Attorney’s Office – Northern District of Oklahoma, Aug. 6, 2021

A Tulsa man who fraudulently applied for Paycheck Protection Program forgivable loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act was sentenced today in federal court, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Clint Johnson.

U.S. District Judge Claire V. Eagan sentenced Ibanga Etuk, 41, to a total of four years in federal prison— two years for bank fraud and two years for aggravated identity theft. Judge Eagan also ordered Etuk to pay $168,000 in restitution to Chickasaw Community Bank.

In a plea agreement, Etuk admitted that from April 6, 2020, to April 29, 2020, he knowingly applied for a Paycheck Protection Program loan from Frontier State Bank under false pretenses. The defendant lied about the number of people employed during the previous months of purported operations, the payroll expenditures during the previous months, taxes paid during previous months of operation, ownership of the business, and relationships between the parties in a $300,000 loan application submitted for AboveAll Business Inc.

Read more.