BATON ROUGE — A federal judge sentenced a man found guilty of submitting fraudulent applications to receive more than $3 million in pandemic relief funds to seven years in prison.
Richard Hebert Jr., 57, must also pay $2.45 million in restitution to the United States Small Business Administration, as well as serving three years of supervised release.
Authorities seized a home in New Orleans and three vehicles, including a 2013 Ghost Rolls Royce, a Lexus ES 350, and a Ford F-250, that were bought with the ill-gotten funds.
Hebert, a former law enforcement officer from Harvey, made false statements to at least five banks and applied at least 12 times for Paycheck Protection Program loans between April 2020 and July 2020. On his applications, Hebert made false representations, including falsified tax forms, regarding his businesses.
In total, he fraudulently applied for $4.2 million in PPP loans.