Fake employees and unnamed conspirators
Joseph Freeman lumbered through the revolving doors of the federal courthouse in Seattle Tuesday morning and emptied his pockets to walk through the security scanner.
For years, the 62-year-old Freeman ran a one-man ticket resale business out of a tiny office in the shadow of Lumen Field. In 2020, when the pandemic shut down live sports, his livelihood went bust overnight, his lawyer said in a court filing.
He then obtained over $640,000 from Paycheck Protection Program loans, using false information about his business. He admitted to creating a roster of fake employees to qualify for loan forgiveness.
Freeman told the judge that he was approached by multiple unnamed co-conspirators who offered to secure him a loan for a 20% fee. He claimed he had no idea how much money they would ask for and never would have agreed to it if he’d known.
His attorney, Jennifer Wellman, described him as a vulnerable accomplice who made misguided choices in response to his livelihood collapsing, and accused the anonymous co-conspirators of formulating the plan. She said Freeman was “relieved” when the government froze his account, because he regretted his decision and wanted out.
Freeman’s lawyer filed letters of support from eight people, including friends, family and colleagues. Numerous colleagues noted his work with the U.S. Minority Ticketing Group and said he worked with and donated tickets to a youth homelessness organization.
“Those are the ones that I feel the most pain [about], because those kids really look up to me,” Freeman told the judge. “I could have said no to both loans and I didn’t. … I really shouldn’t have done what I did, and I’m willing to take whatever charge you decide.”
Prosecutor Cindy Chang pushed back on the idea that Freeman played a minor role. She said that Freeman never disclosed the identities of the alleged conspirators. After he was supposedly taken aback by the size of the loan, Freeman not only created a fake payroll account to get the loan forgiven, but he went back and requested a second loan using false information, Chang said.
“Freeman could have stopped at $500,000,” she said. “He did not.”
Judge James Robart also expressed skepticism about Freeman’s claim that he was unaware of the loan amount and asked about the identities of the plan’s purported architects.
In his ruling, Robart noted that millions of entrepreneurs were impacted by the pandemic, but did not resort to fraud.
“Other people who were in the same situation chose to suffer their circumstances as opposed to committing a crime,” Robart said. “I think it’s important to understand that you can’t steal from the government.”
