In the months immediately after the COVID-19 pandemic began, Kasey Marie Hamer started out implementing for loans meant for enterprises that ended up shedding revenue.
Hamer’s first application, in April 2020, was for a company termed “Thingamabobz,” in accordance to courtroom files. Hamer said it was an automotive mend shop, and she experienced a single personnel. She claimed her gross earnings in the preceding 12 months was $890,000, the files say.
The major company tackle outlined was a two-tale apartment constructing in East Cost Hill. Whilst Hamer received a $1,000 advance, the financial loan was later on declined.
A week later, Hamer used for another personal loan for “Thingamabobz,” court docket files say. This time, she claimed to have 14 employees and stated it was a “wholesale import/export” small business, the files say.
The gross earnings she stated for the previous 12 months: $1.2 million, in accordance to the documents. The principal business enterprise deal with stated was a compact household in Columbia Tusculum.
That loan also was declined.
Hamer experimented with all over again in May perhaps 2020, making use of a various title and handle for a “wholesale import/export” organization she claimed experienced 14 staff, the files say. That didn’t operate.
Eventually, that very same month, Hamer utilized for a distinctive kind of financial loan, under the Paycheck Safety Application, which was designed so firms could keep their personnel throughout the pandemic. The financial loans are usually forgiven. She said she had a marketing and advertising business enterprise with one particular worker, court docket paperwork say. The application was authorised and she been given $23,000.
This 7 days, Hamer, 36, of Batavia, agreed to plead responsible in federal court in Cincinnati to two counts of making false statements on personal loan purposes.
Her husband, 42-yr-previous Raymond Cook of Batavia, also has agreed to plead responsible to the very same cost. Court docket paperwork say he been given approximately $21,000 for an automotive mend organization, immediately after trying several periods utilizing distinct numbers of employees and various gross revenues.
“Inconsistencies among bank loan apps are a popular indicator of fraud,” a federal agent wrote in an affidavit.
Hamer and Cook could not be achieved for remark. A cellphone quantity related with Hamer was no longer working. Her federal public defender did not answer to an email trying to get remark.
Other people billed
A daughter Hamer experienced with yet another male, Hailey Wooten, also faces associated costs. Files say Wooten – working with the exact same Columbia Tusculum deal with Hamer utilised for her alleged import/export business – acquired a bank loan for extra than $40,000.
Wooten’s software, according to court docket files, claimed she experienced 15 workforce for an function planning enterprise that experienced once-a-year gross revenues of virtually $105,000. In the affidavit, the federal agent mentioned there is no indicator she “engaged in (that) variety of employment.”
Courtroom documents say Wooten’s father, Billy Wooten, built phony statements to protected a Paycheck Security Plan loan for much more than $20,000. The documents say that as part of the application method, Wooten utilised a debit card statement with transactions showing up “to be identical” to the statement Cook submitted.
Billy Wooten told investigators in June 2021 that Hamer helped him file for the loan.
According to courtroom files, Wooten said he employed the personal loan to “buy an ad for the design work opportunities he was working, but then commenced employing prescription drugs and alternatively employed the dollars to acquire home furnishings for his house” as perfectly as other expenditures. He has agreed to plead guilty to creating phony statements on a financial loan application, court docket data say.
Lawyers for Billy and Hailey Wooten did not immediately answer to messages searching for remark.