A Kansas City preparer filed 43 fraudulent PPP loans for fees of $2,000 to $7,000 a time
Renetta Golden-Larimore, 56, of Kansas City, Missouri, led a scheme that from February 2021 to May 2022 prepared and filed false Paycheck Protection Program loan applications for other people, charging fees of $2,000 to $7,000 per application. She created counterfeit IRS forms for nonexistent businesses and inflated income figures for existing ones, preparing 43 applications that were ultimately funded, worth $908,278, plus numerous others that were rejected. She personally earned at least $75,833 from the scheme, which was part of a wider investigation charging 21 other people across seven related Kansas City cases. She pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in two separate federal indictments and was sentenced in June 2025 to 51 months in prison, with restitution of $908,278 to the Small Business Administration and forfeiture of $75,833.
- Year
- 2025
- Where
- United States
- Outcome
- Sentenced
- Reported loss
- $908,278
- Victims
- Not stated in the sources
- Schemes
- Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan fraud
- Last reviewed
- 2026-10-02
The facts, as recorded
- Renetta Golden-Larimore, 56, of Kansas City, Missouri, conspired with others from February 2021 to May 2022 to submit false and fraudulent applications for PPP loans.
- She created counterfeit IRS forms for nonexistent businesses, and inflated income figures for existing businesses, to qualify borrowers for PPP loans they would not otherwise have received.
- She charged fees of $2,000 to $7,000 per application for her assistance, earning at least $75,833 total from the scheme.
- She prepared approximately 43 false PPP loan applications that were funded, totaling $908,278 in losses to the Small Business Administration, plus numerous other applications that were rejected.
- The scheme was part of a wider investigation that charged and convicted 21 other people across seven related federal cases in the Kansas City area.
- She pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, contained in two separate federal indictments, and was sentenced on June 25, 2025 by U.S. District Judge Brian C. Wimes to 51 months in prison.
- The court ordered her to pay $908,278 in restitution to the Small Business Administration and to forfeit $75,833, the amount she personally profited.
Why this case matters
This is the smallest case on this page by dollar figure, and the most direct illustration of the fee-for-filing model: Golden-Larimore did not operate a platform or a company, she personally prepared false applications for other people, one at a time, for a fee of a few thousand dollars each. It shows how little the underlying fraud actually cost to run at small scale, and how a single preparer’s volume, 43 funded applications, can still add up to nearly a million taxpayer dollars.
A fee, not a percentage
Unlike Blueacorn’s percentage-based “VIPPP” charge, Golden-Larimore’s fee was flat, $2,000 to $7,000 per application regardless of the loan’s eventual size, paid to her directly rather than deducted from loan proceeds. Either structure removes the same thing: any financial incentive for the person filing the paperwork to question the numbers in it.
Part of a much larger ring
The Internal Revenue Service’s own announcement describes this as one of seven related cases out of Kansas City, with 21 other people charged and convicted alongside Golden-Larimore, a reminder that a single small-dollar preparer scheme can sit inside a much larger, multi-defendant fraud network that federal investigators worked for years after the loans were disbursed.
The caveat
Golden-Larimore pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in two separate federal indictments and has been sentenced. The figures above, the fee range, the application count, and the loss total, come from the government’s own sentencing announcement and contemporaneous local reporting.
Sources
- Leader of PPP Fraud Scheme Sentenced to 51 Months in Prison. US Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation. Accessed 2026-10-02. Supports: Golden-Larimore's age, the February 2021 to May 2022 scheme period, the counterfeit IRS forms and inflated income figures, the $2,000 to $7,000 fees, the 43 funded applications and $908,278 loss, her $75,833 in personal profit, her guilty pleas, her 51-month sentence, and the restitution and forfeiture figures.
- Leader of scheme that defrauded $900K in federal loans sentenced to prison. KCTV5 (Kansas City). Accessed 2026-10-02. Supports: The June 25, 2025 sentencing date, the 21 co-conspirators, the more than 40 funded fraudulent applications, and the fees charged 'thousands of dollars per application'.