Spokane Valley- Couple indicted by Covid-19 strike team, Raymond Hilderbrand 53, and Jennifer Hilderbrand 52. The indictment included eight counts of fraud in connection with fraudulently-obtained EIDL.
The indictment alleges the couple applied and received $363,000 in Economic Injury Disaster loan funding. The funding was for his company, Hilderbrand auto service, with the intent to steal, defraud, and convert the money from the EIDL loan for the couples use in Powerline Enterprise LLC.
The indictment also claims Jennifer Hilderbrand made false representations on an application for the loan to fund Powerline Enterprise LLC.
The fraud charges carry sentences of up to 20 years in federal prison as well as restitution for fraudulently-obtained funds.
March 27, 2020, the president had signed into law the Covid aid, relief, and economic security act. The act was to let small businesses obtain relief funding so the economic impact wasn’t so dire. The loans were supposed to be deferred during the end of the pandemic to provide “bridge” funding.
The Economic Injury Disaster loan gave billions of dollars to help the small businesses but a large majority has not paid back, including the hundreds of millions of dollars disbursed in Eastern Washington.
February 2022, U.S Attorney Waldref and the U.S Attorney’s office started working with federal law enforcement to launch a Covid-19 fraud strike force. The reason for the Covid-19 strike force was to aggressively investigate and prosecute fraud against relief programs.
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