U.S. District Judge Terence C. Kern sentenced Lauren Michelle Owen, 40, of Jenks, to 27 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release. In January, Owen pleaded guilty to bank fraud, wire fraud, and tax evasion. Judge Kern further ordered Owen to pay more than $1.2 million in restitution.
“Lauren Owen engaged in multiple fraudulent schemes, including taking advantage of her employer’s kindness solely to enrich her luxurious lifestyle at the expense of others,” stated U.S. Attorney Clinton Johnson. “This sentencing and restitution will show criminals that fraudulent schemes will not go unpunished.”
“Miss Owen thought stealing from the government would be a victimless crime, but the money set aside for COVID relief was designed to help small businesses stay open through the pandemic,” said Christopher J. Altemus Jr., special agent in charge of the IRS Criminal Investigation’s Dallas Field Office. “Miss Owen’s actions kept money out of the hands of others who would have used it to pay employees and keep their businesses open, as it was intended. Instead, she used it and other illegal financial activities to elevate her lifestyle. CI and our partners have ensured she has been held accountable for her actions.”
According to court documents, in 2010, Lauren Owen was hired by her employer as a secretary. She gained the trust of her employer and was eventually promoted to vice president and sole financial officer. Owen’s duties included handling the financial books and records for the company, paying bills and preparing checks for legitimate business expenses, overseeing payroll, hiring and firing personnel. She would make unauthorized checks to herself, payments on her personal credit cards, and unauthorized wage payments to herself from her employer’s accounts. These fraudulent transactions totaled more than $750,000 loss to her employer.
After losing her job, in November of 2021, Owen devised a plan to defraud the Small Business Association (SBA) after Congress passed the CARES Act in response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and economic crisis. She falsified an application for a loan, on behalf of Platinum Assets, LLC, a company she owned and controlled. She lied on the application stating that she’d never been criminally charged, when in fact she had previously been arraigned in state court for embezzlement. She falsely signed and certified the application that the information she provided was true and correct, to the best of her knowledge. After approving the loan, the SBA deposited more than $384,000 in Owen’s bank account whereafter Owen improperly misapplied the loan proceeds by purchasing a 2018 Chevrolet Corvette, a 40-foot yacht and paying off a loan on a 2018 Ford F-250.
From 2016 through 2020, Owen further attempted to evade substantial income tax from her misconduct. She failed to report her extra, illegal income she was received from her embezzlement. Owen admitted that she tried to hide her income by making unauthorized transactions. She knew reporting her income correctly would leave her owing more than $61,000 in unpaid taxes and agreed to pay the IRS an additional $67,800 in other unpaid taxes.
Owen was permitted to remain on bond and voluntarily surrender to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility at a later date.
The Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation and the U.S. Secret Service conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney David D. Whipple prosecuted the case.
On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. The Task Force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with administering relief programs to prevent fraud by augmenting and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts. For more information on the department’s response to the pandemic, please visit justice.gov/coronavirus and justice.gov/coronavirus/combatingfraud.
Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline via the NCDF Web Complaint Form