A former NFL player and his business partner, who were co-owners of a construction business and trucking company, and their bookkeeper face fraud charges after prosecutors claim they engaged in an elaborate scheme to obtain $1.4 million through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).
On Monday, a federal grand jury indicted Dana C. Howard, 52, of O’Fallon, Illinois, on nine counts, including wire fraud, bankruptcy fraud, failure to pay taxes, making a false statement and conspiracy. Howard, who was drafted in 1995 by the Dallas Cowboys and later released and signed by the St. Louis Rams that year. In 1996, he was signed to play for the Chicago Bears before being injured. He was an All-American linebacker for the University of Illinois.
In the 21-page indictment, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, Howard’s business partner, Richard Scott Myers, 63, of Edwardsville, Illinois, was charged with eight counts, including one count of money laundering, and Glenn Sunnquist, 53, of Swansea, Illinois, was charged with three counts of wire fraud and conspiracy.
What happened?
According to the indictment, Howard and Myers owned a construction company, Zoie LLC, as well as a freight company, Zade Trucking, both located in East St. Louis, Illinois.
Prosecutors allege that Howard and Myers applied for and obtained a $1.43 million loan in April 2020 from Saint Louis Bank through the PPP, administered by the U.S. Small Business Administration to help businesses struggling during the COVID pandemic. The pair claimed that more than $1.3 million of the funds would be used to keep their construction company, Zoie, afloat.
However, prosecutors allege that Howard and Myers used most of the funds meant to keep Zoie operating for their personal use and to pay down nearly $430,000 in debt for their other business, Zade Trucking. Myers used $250,000 to buy a house, according to the indictment.
Court filings allege the business partners used cashier’s checks and wire transfers to move funds meant for the construction company through three banks in St. Louis, Edwardsville and Champaign, Illinois, and wrote checks for themselves for $500,000 apiece from the Zoie account, which they listed as “payroll funds” in the memo line.
Howard and Myers also filed for personal Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. Southern District of Illinois in 2020 but failed to disclose the PPP funds that were funneled to their personal accounts, according to the indictment.
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