CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A Putnam County man has been sentenced for fraudulently obtaining COVID-19 relief funds and unemployment benefits.
Gary Lomax, 62, of Hurricane, was sentenced to five years of federal probation Tuesday, as well as four months of home detention for the theft of public money, property or records.
In March 2020, Lomax was laid off from his job as a sales associate at an auto dealership in Charleston due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Upon the development, Lomax began applying for unemployment compensation and received legitimate benefits from that time up until he returned to work on April 8, 2020.
Lomax continued to apply for unemployment benefits from April 25, 2020, to at least June 27, 2020, as he admitted. In the process, Lomax fraudulently obtained $8,760 in unemployment benefits. Lomax also falsely certified on the WorkForce West Virginia website that he was entitled to unemployment benefits for the approximately 10 weeks he was fraudulently obtaining the benefits.
In addition to fraudulently obtaining unemployment funds, Lomax applied for a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan while claiming to be an independent contractor. Lomax applied for the loan claiming he had earned $369,730 during the 2020 tax year, which saw him receive $20,832, as that was the maximum loan amount independent contractors could receive. Lomax later admitted that he had no income from the 2020 tax year as an independent contractor.
Lomax has been ordered to pay $29,592 in restitution.