KANSAS CITY, Missouri – A man from a Prairie Village, Kansas, was convicted in federal court today for involvement in two separate million dollar false payday loan fraud and tax evasion totaling more than $ 8 million.
“After collecting millions of dollars from the victims of his fraud scheme, the defendant lied repeatedly and used every trick in the book to hide his illicit gain from the IRS,” said Acting US Attorney Teresa A. Moore. “He’s spent a lot of money on jet travel and luxury cars, but hasn’t voluntarily paid a dime in taxes for over a decade. To add insult to injury, he even fraudulently received a government paycheck protection program loan after working so many years to defraud US taxpayers. “
Joel Jerome Tucker, 52, was sentenced to 12 years and six months in federal prison without parole by US District Judge Roseann Ketchmark. The court also ordered Tucker to pay $ 8,057,079 in compensation to the Internal Revenue Service and forfeit $ 5,000 to the government, which is the amount of stolen revenue that was transferred across state lines, such as given in the specific count to which he pleaded guilty.
The FBI special agent in charge, Michael E. Hensle, said: “Tucker has defrauded hundreds of thousands of innocent victims and the US government for his personal gain. While most people aspire to make an honest living and live the American dream, Tucker opted for a lavish lifestyle at the expense of working Americans. The FBI will continue to prosecute and bring to justice those who take advantage of others for profit and believe they are above the law. “
“Tucker used the proceeds of his criminal activities to lead a lavish lifestyle and defraud the American people. His conviction shows that the courts are serious about tax and related fraud programs, ”said Amanda Prestegard, acting special agent for the St. Louis Field Office of the IRS Criminal Investigation. “IRS-CI aggressively investigates and exposes complex financial crime in order to disrupt criminal activity that affects the US tax system.”
Tucker, who worked for a variety of companies, operated payday loan businesses. Tucker’s company name changed over the years; the main company was eData Solutions, LLC. eData, officially registered July 29, 2009, did not make loans directly to borrowers; It gathered information on loan applications called leads and sold those leads to its 70 or so payday lenders. As a credit service provider, eData also provided software for payday lenders.
Tucker and the other owners of eData sold the company to the Wyandotte Indian Tribe in 2012. However, despite selling his stake in eData, Tucker kept a file of 7.8 million leads acquired through eData with detailed customer information (including names, addresses, bank accounts, social security numbers, dates of birth, etc.). eData had collected the detailed customer information from online payday loan applications or inquiries to its payday lender customers; the file did not represent loans that were made. In addition, Tucker received and stored data on defaulted payday loans that eData acquired from a number of different payday lenders. Tucker uses these files to create fake debt portfolios.
On July 16, 2020, Tucker pleaded guilty to shipping stolen money across state lines as part of the debt fraud program, a bankruptcy fraud case, and a tax evasion case. The government also alleged in court records that Tucker was involved in another fraud program, which was not charged under these proceedings, by fraudulently obtaining funds under the payroll protection program.
Debt fraud system
Tucker admitted that he was involved in a fraudulent debt program from 2014 to 2016. This program involved the marketing, distribution and sale of fake debt portfolios. Tucker defrauded third party debtors and millions of individuals listed as debtors by selling fake debt portfolios. Tucker sold alleged debts that: 1) he did not personally own; 2) were not real debts; 3) had already been sold to other buyers; and 4) contained incorrect lenders, incorrect credit information, incorrect loan amounts, and incorrect payment status. Some of the “debtors” only applied for a loan but never received it, either because they withdrew their application or the loan was not covered. However, some of the listed debtors paid the debt collection agencies out of fear or confusion about their debts. Tucker received up to $ 7.3 million from selling false debt portfolios in just two years, from early 2014 to early 2016.
As part of his fraud scheme, Tucker carried the proceeds of the fraud scheme across state lines.
Bankruptcy fraud system
Tucker also admitted that he ran a related bankruptcy fraud program in 2015 and 2016. In its bankruptcy fraud program, Tucker also sold fraudulent debts that were brought before US bankruptcy courts nationwide. When the United States bankruptcy court was investigating these alleged debts, which were presented as claims in bankruptcy proceedings, Tucker repeatedly lied under oath, providing false information and testimony to the bankruptcy court in order to cover up his plan.
tax evasion
On April 15, 2014, the US tax court ruled that Tucker owed tax deficiencies from 2007 and 2008. The total amount owed with interest and penalties in 2014 was $ 8,057,079.95. For the 2014-2016 tax years, neither Tucker personally nor any of its companies filed federal tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service. According to court documents, Tucker now owes approximately $ 12 million in taxes, interest and penalties for 2007-2014. According to court documents, Tucker never made any voluntary payments for his tax bill.
Tucker told IRS agents that he had no income and was living on borrowed money, including lots of money from his mother. In reality, bank accounts showed that Tucker was sending money to his mother instead of borrowing money from her. Tucker used nominees’ bank accounts to hide income and assets, and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on personal living expenses, such as vehicles, chartered jets, travel and entertainment, and personal residence.
For example, Tucker rented a $ 1.59 million home in Prairie Village, bought a Cadillac Escalade for $ 105,367, spent $ 226,000 on private charter jet services, spent more than $ 75,000 out to lease a Porsche and a Ferrari, spent $ 17,536 at The Arrabelle, a luxury hotel in Vail, Colorado, paid $ 50,000 to the Vail Mountain Club, paid a total of $ 682,437 to American Express and made cash withdrawals totaling nearly $ 200,000.
Paycheck Protection Scam
According to court documents, a month before making a guilty guilty plea for financial crimes, Tucker fraudulently obtained a PPP loan by denying he was charged.
Tucker submitted a loan application for a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan to the Small Business Administration on June 13, 2020. Tucker was originally charged on June 5, 2018. A substitute charge was returned on May 21, 2019. Tucker was thus under federal prosecution for two years when he filled out the PPP loan application. Question 5 of the motion read: “Is the applicant (if an individual) … subject to charge, criminal information, indictment or other means of formally criminal charges in any jurisdiction, or currently in detention, or on parole or parole? ? Immediately before this question, the loan application document says: “If questions (5) or (6) are answered with ‘Yes’, the loan will not be approved.” (Emphasis placed on the original). Tucker replied no and electronically signed the application.
Due to the false certification from Tucker, his loan application for $ 20,833 was approved and he received the money on June 16, 2020.
Although Tucker was not charged with any criminal offense in relation to the fraudulent loan, the court considered those acts to be relevant conduct in determining today’s judgment.
This case was followed up by US assistant attorneys Kathleen D. Mahoney and Patrick D. Daly. It has been investigated by the FBI, IRS Criminal Investigation, and the US Bankruptcy Trustee in the southern borough of Texas.
COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force
On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to mobilize the Department of Justice’s resources in collaboration with government agencies to step up efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. The task force supports efforts to identify and prosecute the most guilty national and international criminal actors and assists authorities charged with managing fraud prevention aid programs by, among other things, expanding and integrating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques, to detect fraudulent actors and their systems; and to share and use information and intelligence from previous enforcement efforts. For more information on the ministry’s response to the pandemic, please visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus.
Anyone with information about suspected COVID-19-related fraud can report this by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) hotline at 866-720-5721 or using the NCDF web complaint form at: https: // www .justice.gov / disaster-fraud / ncdf-disaster-complaint form.