US Alleges Fraud
In charges filed by the US Justice Department, Corkrum is being charge with bank fraud in the USA for fraudulently requesting US$7.9 million, of which US$6 was received, from the government’s payroll Protection Program.
The PPP was the brainchild of former President Donald Trump’s administration, set up to provide small businesses with funds to pay up to 8 weeks of payroll costs including benefits.
As part of the program, funds could also be used to pay interest on mortgages, rent, and utilities.
Under the program, fully forgiven funds are provided in the form of loans that will be fully forgiven when used for payroll costs, interest on mortgages, rent, and utilities (due to likely high subscription, at least 75% of the forgiven amount must have been used for payroll). Loan payments will also be deferred for six months. No collateral or personal guarantees are required. Neither the government nor lenders will charge small businesses any fees.
Previous Indictment in Liberia
Corkrum, a former U.S. military Black Hawk assault helicopter pilot, served as the managing director of the Liberia Airports Authority before clandestinely fleeing in the wake of an indictment by the Grand Jury of Montserrado County in 2013 on charges of economic sabotage, criminal facilitation, conspiracy to defraud the government, and making unauthorized transfers of funds from government accounts.
Corkrum was indicted, as was the First International Bank which was accused of conspiring with Corkrum and her then boyfriend, Melvin Johnson to make an unauthorized transfer of funds in the amount of US$56,750 from the account of the Liberia Airport Authority when Corkrum was the Managing Director.
Corkrum was also accused of transferring US$269,000 to a fictitious company, Diaspora Consulting, LLC and its CEO, Momar Dieng, through whom she reportedly attended the Kennedy Business School, Harvard University.
Many Liberians were caught by surprise in December 2019 when lawyers representing the Government of Liberia filed a motion for Nolle Prosequoi at Criminal Court ‘C’ at the Temple of Justice, requesting that all charges against Ms. Ellen Cockrum be dropped. On December 9, the government’s request was granted the same day by Judge Nancy F. Sammy of Criminal Court ‘C’.
Further reports gathered by IPNEWS is that the dropping of the charges against Corkrum was a prelude to the Weah administration appointing her as director of the Airport.
In the motion, the Assistant Minister for Litigation at the Ministry of Justice, Cllr. Wesseh A. Wesseh, argued that the case has been pending before the court since 2013 without having the opportunity to serve defendant Corkrum with the Indictment or the Writ of Arrest to bring her under the jurisdiction of the court.
In 2015, some efforts were made to secure Corkrum’s extradition to Liberia. The Solicitor General at the time, Cllr. Betty L. Blamo, traveled to the United States to meet U.S. authorities but that did not materialize, making it impossible for Corkrum to be served her indictment or extradited to lead to prosecution. These constraints, the CDC-led government noted, led to her decision to finally drop charges against Corkrum.
Criminal Court ‘C’ Judge Sammie therefore granted prosecution’s request without hesitation, ultimately dismissing charges and the indictment against Corkrum.
At the time Judge Sammy said the court had “no alternative” but to agree with the government since “it is the Government of Liberia that has the responsibility to institute criminal charges against the accused person and prosecute them.”
Fake Names; Fraudulent Transactions
According to the charges filed in the US District Court for Northern District of Georgia, Atlanta Division, Corkrum, used several aliases deceived authorities with criminal mischiefs.
From on or about April 27, 2020 through on or about June 17, 2020, in the Northern District of Georgia and elsewhere, the Corkrum, aka Hunter Vanpelt a/k/a Hunter Lauren Vanpelt a/k/a Ellen Corkrum a/k/a Ellen Yabba Kwame Corkrum, knowingly executed and attempted to execute a scheme and artifice to defraud financial institutions, the deposits of which were then insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation(FDIC), and to obtain, by means of materially false and fraudulent pretenses, representations, and promises moneys, funds, credits, assets, securities and other property owned by and under the custody and control of those financial institutions, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1344.
Under the Title 18 violation, a person who obtain any of the moneys, funds, credits, assets, securities, or other property owned by, or under the custody or control of, a financial institution, by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises, could be fined not more than $1,000,000 or imprisoned not more than 30 years, or both.
The United States Small Business Administration(SBA) was an executive branch agency of the United States government that provided support to entrepreneurs and small business. The mission of the SBA was to maintain and strengthen the nation’s economic recovery of communities and disasters.
As part of this effort, the SBA enabled and provided for loans through banks, credit unions, and other lenders. These loans had government guarantees.
The Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security(CARES) Act was a federal law enacted in or about March 2020 and was designed to provide emergency financial assistance to the millions of Americans who were suffering the economic effects caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
One source of relief that the CARES Act provided was the authorization of up to $349 billion in forgivable loans to small businesses for payroll, mortgage interest, rent/lease, and utilities, through a program referred to as the Paycheck Protection Program(PPP). In April 2020, the Congress authorized up to $310 billion in additional PPP funding.
The PPP allowed qualifying small businesses and other organizations to receive PPP loans. Businesses must use PPP loan proceeds for payroll costs, interests on mortgages, rent and utilities. The PPP allowed the interest and principal on the PPP loan to be entirely forgiven if the business spent the loan proceeds on these expense items within a designated period of time and used a certain percentage of the PPP loan proceeds for payroll expenses.
The amount of a PPP loan that a small business may have been entitled to receive was determined by the number of employees employed by the business and the business’s average payroll costs
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