El Dorado Hills company SlideBelts admits to lying to get COVID-19 relief loan
SlideBelts, an online fashion accessories retailer based in El Dorado Hills, agreed to pay $100,000 to the U.S. government for lying to banks to receive $350,000 in coronavirus aid intended for small businesses suffering financially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
As part of the settlement with federal prosecutors, SlideBelts Inc. and its president and CEO, Brigham Taylor, admitted lying to federally insured banks to receive the $350,000 loan, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Sacramento announced in a news release Tuesday.
Prosecutors said this is the first civil settlement with U.S. Department of Justice to resolve allegations of fraud against the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, also known as the CARES Act. The settlement was reached Tuesday.
SlideBelts, then an innovative company among the nation’s fastest-growing businesses, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August 2019. The company offers belts without holes that use a ratchet system based on a Moldovan military design that owners Brigham and Michelle Taylor patented for sale.
The prosecutors said Taylor and SlideBelts made false statements to federally insured banks that the company was not in bankruptcy to influence those banks to approve, and for the Small Business Administration to guarantee, a Paycheck Protection Program loan.
The federal CARES Act was enacted in late March to help Americans suffering from the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic as businesses were for forced to shut down to slow the spread of the virus. Part of the CARES Act authorized up to $349 billion in forgivable loans to small businesses for job retention and certain other expenses through the Paycheck Protection Program.
Months after receiving the loan, in response to federal demands, SlideBelts paid back the Paycheck Protection Program funds to the bank that provided the loan, according to the news release.
The $100,000 settlement in combined damages and penalties resolves allegations that Taylor and his company committed fraud, prosecutors said.
