A St. Louis area contractor has been sentenced to three years in prison for fraudulently obtaining $1.7 million in pandemic relief loans. U.S. District Judge Cristian M. Stevens also ordered Coretta “Cory” Elliott, 53, to repay the money.
Elliott owned and operated CMT LLC, a company that offered construction, demolition, roofing, landscaping and remediation services under the name CMT Roofing LLC as well. According to court documents, Elliott secured an $875,000 Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan for CMT Roofing in 2020 and a second loan of $833,333 in 2021 by falsely certifying that the funds would be used for legitimate business purposes. She inflated her company’s payroll numbers to qualify for larger loans and later claimed on forgiveness applications that the money had been spent on payroll and other allowable expenses.
The PPP was created to help businesses retain employees and cover essential costs during the COVID-19 pandemic by providing funding for payroll and other business expenses.
During Tuesday’s hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Hal Goldsmith said Elliott viewed the loans as a way to “save herself financially.” Records show she diverted $200,000 into her investment account and used more than $559,000 of the funds to pay union dues owed by her companies. Those dues covered health insurance and other benefits for workers. Additional funds were spent on personal uses.
“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.”
Elliott pleaded guilty in November to two counts of wire fraud.
The case was investigated by the FBI and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Hal Goldsmith.
