To make a little money during the pandemic, a soldier in Virginia allegedly opened a small bakery to sell his grandmother’s pies. He called his business “Granny’s Delight.”
But federal authorities say there was no bakery, no pies, no “Granny,” and the only “delight” was $41,000 in fraudulent small business loans that the soldier used on golf and vacations.
Sgt. 1st Class Crispin Antonio Abad, 42, was one of three soldiers at Fort Gregg-Adams, Virginia charged with fraudulently collecting small business relief loans during COVID, Department of Justice officials announced Tuesday. All three were indicted by a federal grand jury in Virginia.
According to the indictment, Abad applied for two federal COVID-relief loans under the guise of keeping “Granny’s Delight” afloat but instead used the funds for “various luxury and recreational spending,” including hundreds of dollars in purchases at the Fort Gregg-Adams Golf Course, Ace Adventure Resort in West Virginia, Victoria’s Secret, Sunglass Hut, and the Virginia ABC Store. He also allegedly bought more than $400 worth of jewelry at Reeds Jeweler and withdrew hundreds of dollars at the MGM Casino in National Harbor, Maryland.
In 2021, Abad, claimed that the pie business brought in $100,000 in annual income as part of the loan application. Abad allegedly falsified federal tax return forms to show a false income from the business.
In separate indictments, Fort Gregg-Adams soldiers Maj. Eduwell Jenkins, 42, and Sgt. Malaysia Stubbs, 30, also pleaded guilty to fraudulently obtaining loans from the SBA program by claiming fake businesses.
Fort Gregg-Adams was previously Fort Lee before its name was changed in 2023.
The Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program was authorized as part of the federal government’s 2020 Coronavirus Aid Relief, and Economic Security “CARES” Act which was designed to give emergency financial assistance to millions of Americans who suffered economic effects caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Small Business Administration was in charge of overseeing and granting applications for PPP loans.
In January, the FBI said that the Small Business Administration’s inspector general estimated that the government had paid out around $64 billion worth of fraudulent PPP loans. The cases have ranged from individuals who claimed income from fraudulent small businesses to large groups of people who were part of million-dollar small business schemes.
Under the SBA’s rules for the loan program, authorized expenses included business fees like payroll costs, interest on mortgages, rent, and utilities. According to the indictment, Abad claimed that the funds would be used to “retain workers and maintain payroll.”
If convicted by a federal jury, Abad faces a maximum of 20 years in prison although the DOJ noted in their release that “actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties.”
Stubbs and Jenkins filed for loans in 2021 while active-duty soldiers and “falsely represented to the SBA” that they both had jobs outside of the military that brought them an annual income of more than $100,000, according to DOJ officials. Jenkins claimed he ran a consulting business. Court documents did not specify what kind of business Stubbs claimed the fraudulent SBA loan for.
Based on the fake tax return documents, the two soldiers received over $20,000 in government-backed PPP loans, according to the DOJ.
Jenkins pleaded guilty Tuesday. Stubbs’ pleaded guilty Nov. 5. They are scheduled to be sentenced separately in March 2025 where they each face a maximum of five years in prison.
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