CHARLESTON, W.Va.—- A St. Albans woman was sentenced to five years of federal probation and ordered to pay a $25,830 receipt of stolen money.
According to court documents, Jessica Nutter, 39, admitted to a scheme to defraud the Paycheck Protection Program of $20,830 in COVID-19 relief loans that were guaranteed by the Small Business Administration under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act.
Also, according to court documents from March 27, 2021, through on or about April 20, 2021, she fraudulently obtained two PPP loans each for $10,415 from an approved PPP lender in Texas and the SBA. On one loan application, Nutter claimed that she had a business, Nut House Wood and that in 2019 it grossed $50,000 in income. The second loan she applied for it under her husband’s name, stating that he received $50,000 in gross income as an independent contractor for an online food ordering and delivery service.
To apply for PPP loans businesses had to certify that the business was in operation on February 15, 2020, and were required to provide documentation showing prior gross income from either 2019 or 2020. Nutter admitted that her business, Nut House Wood, was not a registered business entity in the state of West Virginia. And that it had never engaged in legitimate business activity when she applied for the loan. She also admitted that her husband was never an independent contractor.
The Texas lender approved both of the loan applications that Nutter submitted and on April 9, 2021, the money from the first loan was transferred to Nutter’s personal bank account. She admitted that she used $1,5573.12 to cover expenses for a family vacation that was later that year. The second loan amount was transferred to her husband’s personal account on April 20, 2021, and Nutter admitted that they used that stolen funds for general family expenses.