A Kansas City woman faces up to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty on Monday to receiving almost half a million dollars in unlawful COVID-era Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans.

Ashli Forbes, 40, admitted to submitting false applications and supporting documents for PPP loans on behalf of Forbes Realty Company LLC (FRC) and Left Lane Motors LLC (LLM), both of which she owned.

The program was part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which provided emergency Small Business Administration loans to businesses suffering due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In April 2020, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri, Forbes submitted a loan application and claimed FRC had an average monthly payroll of $82,519, but records show the 2019 wages were actually $240,000. Forbes didn’t report any income from FRC in 2019 and didn’t file a tax return at all in 2020. 

The company received a $206,200 PPP loan. 

In June 2020, Forbes applied for a loan on behalf of LLM and had to provide tax forms 941 and 944 – The Employer’s Quarterly and Annual Tax Reports – as part of the application. However, the two tax forms and listed payments were never filed or made to the IRS. 

The company received $220,400 in PPP loans from that application. 

A federal grand jury charged Forbes with wire fraud and money laundering, to which she pleaded guilty. As part of her plea agreement she also admitted to assisting four other companies in fraudulent PPP loans totaling over $1.3 million. 

The maximum sentence she could receive is 30 years in federal prison without parole.