KC Banker Indicted IN PPP Bribes Involving Jefferson City Business Owner

A Kansas City Banker is indicted on charges that he took bribes from a Jefferson City businessman in exchange for PPP funds from COVID relief.

48-year-old Anthony Omar Brockman was branch manager for the Truman Hospital location of US Bank in Kansas City. But when that bank closed due to the pandemic, he was reassigned.

He was sent to work for the Paycheck Protection Program project at US Bank for three months in 2020, then he went back to his old job.

Brockman is charged with helping Jefferson City business owner Tod Keilholz obtain $12.4-million-dollars in PPP loans that he was not legally entitled to.

Prosecutors say that Brockman faces two counts for receiving gifts in exchange for helping Keilholz get the funds, as well as five counts of wire fraud, and once count for money laundering.

Full story…..

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – A former bank branch manager in Kansas City, Mo., has been indicted by a federal grand jury for accepting Kansas City Chiefs playoffs tickets and a new Chevrolet Tahoe in exchange for facilitating a $12.4 million Covid fraud scheme by a Jefferson City, Mo., business owner, as well as a separate fraud scheme to receive unemployment benefits.

Anthony Omar Brockman, 48, who currently resides in Bennington, Nebraska, was charged in an eight-count indictment returned under seal by a federal grand jury in Jefferson City, Mo., on Tuesday, May 30. That indictment was unsealed and made public today following Brockman’s arrest.

Brockman was the branch manager of the Truman Hospital location of US Bank in Kansas City, Mo., until the COVID-19 pandemic caused the bank branch to close. Brockman was reassigned to US Bank’s Paycheck Protection Program project from April 12 through July 19, 2020. Brockman was then returned to his role as on-site manager at the Truman Hospital bank branch until May 22, 2021.

On March 27, 2020, The CARES Act established several new temporary programs and provided for the expansion of others to address the COVID-19 pandemic. Among these programs, the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) authorized forgivable loans to small businesses to retain workers and maintain payroll, make mortgage interest payments, lease payments, and utility payments.

The indictment alleges that Brockman assisted and facilitated fraudulent PPP loan applications for Tod Ray Keilholz, the owner of TRK Construction, LLC, TRK Valpo, LLC, TL Builders, LLC, and Project Design, LLC, in Jefferson City. Keilholz has been charged in a separate indictment for his role in a more than $27.1 million bank fraud scheme that included more than $12.4 million in PPP loans for his businesses.

According to that separate indictment, Keilholz received a total of $12,430,932 in PPP loans for his four businesses. In each of those loan applications, the indictment says, Keilholz failed to disclose his ownership in the other three businesses, and made materially false and fraudulent claims in the loan applications and supporting documentation. Keilholz allegedly inflated the income of those businesses and claimed payrolls for employees who did not exist or no longer worked for him.

Brockman is charged with two counts of receiving gifts in exchange for assisting Keilholz in procuring those loans. On Nov. 4, 2020, Keilholz allegedly used PPP loan proceeds to pay for a 2021 Chevrolet Tahoe that he gave to Brockman. On Jan. 18, 2021, Keilholz allegedly used PPP loan proceeds to purchase tickets to the Jan. 24, 2021, AFC Championship Game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Buffalo Bills. These gifts, the indictment says, were intended to influence and reward Brockman in connection with Keilholz’s applications for PPP loans and Keilholz’s applications for the forgiveness of PPP loans.

The indictment also charges Brockman with one count of money laundering. Brockman allegedly signed an affidavit gifting the 2021 Chevrolet Tahoe to Rich Girl, Rich Boy Prep, Inc., a charity of which his wife was the Chief Executive Officer. On May 25, 2021, Brockman transferred the title to the Tahoe to Rich Girl, Rich Boy Prep but continued to drive the Tahoe until he sold it in July 2022.

The indictment charges Brockman with five counts of wire fraud related to a scheme to receive $11,040 in unemployment benefits from March 27, 2020, to Nov. 4, 2021, while he was employed by US Bank.

The charges contained in this indictment are simply accusations, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charges must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence.

This case is being prosecuted by Supervisory Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael S. Oliver. It was investigated by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau-Office of Inspector General, the Small Business Administration-Office of Inspector General, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)-Office of Inspector General, the FBI, and IRS-Criminal Investigation.