On October 31, 2023, in the Northern District of Georgia, Gena Pyfrom-Foster, who was an employee of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), was sentenced to 41 months of imprisonment, three years’ supervised release, ordered to pay $5,533,732 in restitution to four victims, and special assessment fee of $100. Pyfrom-Foster pled guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in August 2023.
From April through July of 2020, Pyfrom-Foster and her coconspirators submitted fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan applications for multiple businesses. Pyfrom-Foster prepared fabricated documentation for more than 40 businesses, including nine businesses that received PPP loans.
In one instance, the PPP application falsely represented that a company had 59 employees and an average monthly payroll of $295,186.25. To support its payroll figures, Pyfrom-Foster assisted in the creation and submission of falsified IRS Form 941s, Employer’s Quarterly Federal Tax Return, for each quarter of 2019 and falsified IRS Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement, payroll spreadsheets included with the company’s PPP application. However, documents produced by the company showed that it did not have any employees. Based on the false and fraudulent representations and submissions made by Pyfrom-Foster and her co-conspirators, a financial institution distributed approximately $737,965 to this company.
Source: The facts in this case narrative come from the following publicly available documents: N.D. Ga. Crim. Info. filed May 18, 2023; N.D. Ga. Change of Plea Tr. filed Sept. 5, 2023; N.D. Ga. Sentencing Mem. filed Oct. 25, 2023; and N.D. Ga. Sentencing filed Oct. 31, 2023.