A Junction City business owner has entered a guilty plea for embezzling nearly half a million dollars in COVID-19 relief funds, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Oregon confirmed yesterday. Fifty-year-old Jodi Aliece Jennings, who owned three companies, was admitted to wire fraud after wrongfully obtaining federal loans designed to assist small businesses during the pandemic crisis.
Between April 2020 and January 2022, Jennings sought and secured one Economic Injury Disaster Loan (“EIDL”) Advance and six Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) loans for her businesses – Meridian Redevelopment, J Jenn Enterprises Inc., and J2 Investments, according to court documents obtained by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon. Despite claims that these enterprises were operational and sustaining payroll during the health crisis, investigations revealed these assertions to be false; instead, Jennings redirected the funds to personal use.
Jennings is reported to have defrauded the SBA and lenders out of $487,386.75, an amount that includes principal, interest, SBA-paid lender fees on the PPP loans, and the EIDL advance. Back in June 2023, Jennings was indicted by a federal grand jury on nine counts of wire fraud in Eugene…