SPOKANE, Wash. — A Spokane woman has been sentenced to prison for fraud after getting over $360,000 in COVID relief intended for small businesses and employees at risk of losing their jobs during the pandemic.
41-year-old Marisa Beck was sentenced to one year in prison followed by 3 years of supervised release. Beck was also ordered to pay over $402,000 in restitution.
According to the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington, Beck filed fraudulent claims through the CARES Act for three businesses: Cyra Solar, Beck N’ Call Landscape and Value in People Consulting.
The CARES Act was signed into law on March 27, 2020, and provided different funding programs for small businesses to mitigate the economic loss caused by the pandemic.
Beck admitted Beck N’ Call Landscape and Cyra Solar were not active businesses in February 2020. She submitted fake payroll, revenue and other information for all three businesses to fraudulently get CAREA Act funding.
“Many small businesses struggled during the COVID-19 shutdowns and were eligible for pandemic relief funds to keep their doors open and to ensure that their employees could keep their jobs. Fraudulent schemes diverted critical money set aside to help those businesses and instead were used to enrich individuals such as Ms. Beck,” stated U.S. Attorney Vanessa R. Waldref.