Mount Vernon women agree to forfeit $1.7m for SBA fraud

A Mount Vernon mother and daughter have agreed to pay back nearly $1.7 million they helped steal from the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Andrea Ayers and her daughter, Alicia Ayers, who also lives in Stamford, consented to forfeiture orders filed in U.S. District Court, White Plains, on Dec. 8 and Dec. 12.

The women were arrested in March 2021 and accused of wire fraud, making false statements and identity theft for submitting 315 false loan applications seeking more than $3 million in Covid-19 disaster relief funds. They entered guilty pleas on March 7.

The SBA’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan program was designed to assist small businesses with low-interest loans. The Ayers exploited a feature whereby a business could receive a payroll advance up to $10,000 and not have to repay the advance.

The Ayers recruited applicants by portraying the advances as free money for businesses, homeowners and renters.

The program was only for small businesses and it required applicants to submit details such as the number of employees, revenues and expenses. But many of the businesses did not even exist, according to court records, and the Ayers did not require applicants to provide the required information.

They compiled the applications and submitted them online. When applicants received payroll advances, according to court records, they typically kicked back 25% to 50% of the funds to the Ayers.

Alicia Ayers admitted at her plea hearing this past May that she simply made up details for the purported businesses and she knew what she was doing was against the law.

One individual, identified as Applicant-7 in the criminal complaint, heard about the Ayers from a relative who had used their service, received $10,000 and kicked back $2,500.

Applicant-7 did not own a business, and on learning that the program was only for business owners, told Alicia Ayers not to submit the application.

Ayers submitted the application without Applicant-7’s consent, and the individual filed a complaint with the SBA and police.

The Ayers are scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 16.