A federal judge in St. Louis sentenced a roofing contractor to prison this week for falsely obtaining more than $1.7 million in COVID-19 relief funds that were used for unrelated personal and business expenses.  

Coretta “Cory” Elliott, 53, will serve the next three years in prison on two counts of wire fraud stemming from the thefts in 2020 and 2021, according to a news release. U.S. District Judge Cristian M. Stevens also ordered Elliott to repay the money she stole from the federal pandemic-assistance program as part of the sentence. She pleaded guilty to the charges last November. 

Prosecutors said Elliott owned and operated CMT LLC, which provided commercial construction, demolition, and roofing services, doing business as CMT Roofing. She obtained two different loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration's Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which was established to help save businesses and the jobs of their employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead of using the money to fund payroll obligations, lease payments, utility payments and other business expenses, Elliott saw the loans as a way to “save herself financially,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Hal Goldsmith said during Tuesday’s hearing.

Elliott fraudulently obtained the first PPP loan of $875,000 for CMT Roofing in 2020, and then a second one for $833,333 in 2021, reports said. In each claim, she falsely certified that the loans would be used for business-related purposes. Prosecutors said she also inflated her company’s monthly payroll to get larger loans. Elliott later received forgiveness of the loans by falsely claiming in two applications that she used the money for payroll and other legitimate business expenses.

According to the release, Elliott diverted $200,000 into her investment account and used a total of  $559,455 to pay dues owed by her companies to various construction unions. Those union dues pay for health insurance, sick pay and vacation pay. She used more of the PPP loan money for other personal purposes.

"We will never know whether Coretta Elliott’s business would have legitimately qualified for disaster relief funds. However, by submitting substantial false information across multiple applications, she fraudulently secured $1.7 million in funds," said Special Agent in Charge Chris Crocker of the FBI St. Louis Division.

"Her deceit not only led to her unlawfully obtaining far more than she may have otherwise been entitled to, but it also gave her an unfair competitive advantage over other local contractors. This type of criminal conduct, driven by greed, undermines the integrity of the disaster relief system and harms those who play by the rules."