EX-NFL player, business partners indicted on PPP fraud charges

In December 2020, Howard also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy but failed to disclose on his statement of financial affairs that he still possessed $350,000 in cashier’s checks from the Zoie PPP loan account, according to court documents.

On Jan. 11, 2021, Howard and Myers applied for a second PPP loan for nearly $1.43 million, and both answered “no” when asked if either was involved in bankruptcy proceedings. Later that month, the pair applied to have their first PPP loan forgiven while still holding “at least $400,000 worth of cashier’s checks made out to them personally [and] certified that they had used all loan proceeds for eligible expenses, including payroll costs equal to at least 60% of the total loan amount,” according to the indictment.

On their loan forgiveness application, Howard and Myers claimed they spent more than $860,300 on payroll costs and nearly $556,000 on rent or lease payments, according to court filings.

Sunnquist, the bookkeeper for both companies, is accused of falsifying Zoie’s expense records and manipulating old invoices to support the loan’s forgiveness application. In September 2022, SBA denied forgiveness of the loan.

In September 2021, federal prosecutors allege that Sunnquist sent a Saint Louis Bank loan officer a spreadsheet of falsified expenses for Zoie, which included claims of false payments for heavy equipment rental services from St. Louis-based Treloar Enterprises during a time when the company’s owner was in federal prison. Sunnquist later requested invoices from a previous contract with Geo-Cell, which he allegedly doctored to be used to support the revised forgiveness application, according to court documents.

After concerns were raised by the bank about the first forgiveness application, the indictment alleges, Howard submitted a revised PPP loan forgiveness application later that month which claimed payroll costs of nearly $1.3 million and rent or lease payments of over $159,000. Prosecutors allege the revised application claimed rental payments of nearly $970,000 for “Geo-Cell Payroll” and other rental lease payments of $550,000. At that time, Howard and Myers disclosed that they had received income of $95,000 and $90,000, respectively, from the PPP loan, but later revised their income to $20,833 each after the bank informed them that their income had to be capped at that amount.

Court records indicate that the three have not yet appeared in court on the charges after federal prosecutors moved to quash the arrest warrants issued against Howard, Myers and Sunnquist.

The docket states that Howard’s arraignment is set for Dec. 11 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark A. Beatty.
“The FBI has opened thousands of investigations across the country targeting COVID-related fraud, working diligently in collaboration with our partners to hold thieves accountable,” said FBI Springfield Special Agent in Charge Christopher Johnson in a statement.

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