Baltimore County Man Pleads Guilty to Fraudulently Obtaining More Than a Half Million Dollars in COVID-19 Cares Act Loans

Baltimore, Maryland - Edward McCorkle, 37, of Baltimore County, Maryland, pled guilty today, to one count of wire fraud, in connection with submitting fraudulent CARES Act loan applications.

Kelly O. Hayes, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, announced the guilty plea with Special Agent in Charge William J. DelBagno, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) - Baltimore Field Office, and Chief Robert O. McCullough, Baltimore County Police Department (BCPD).

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act - a federal law enacted in March 2020 - provided emergency financial assistance to Americans suffering from the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. It gives financial assistance including forgivable loans to small businesses for job retention and other expenses. Established by the CARES Act, the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) - administered through the Small Business Administration (SBA) - along with the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL), helped businesses meet their financial obligations.

According to his plea agreement, beginning in May 2020, and continuing through February 2021 in the District of Maryland, McCorkle engaged in a scheme to defraud financial institutions - including Cross River Bank, and the SBA - to obtain fraudulent loans for various purported businesses that he previously established under the PPP and EIDL program.

McCorkle ultimately fraudulently obtained $523,700 as part of this scheme while attempting to obtain a total of $946,500. He used the fraudulently obtained funds for multiple impermissible purposes, including numerous personal expenses, large cash withdrawals, and to purchase and rehabilitate real estate in Baltimore City.

Specifically, on May 26, 2020, McCorkle and a co-conspirator caused the submission of a fraudulent PPP loan application to Cross River Bank for Real Transitions LLC, a purported business McCorkle controlled. The PPP loan application contained multiple material misrepresentations, including that Real Transitions LLC employed 15 workers for an average monthly payroll of $98,600. This equated to approximately $1,183,000 in total payroll expenses in 2019.

In support of the loan application, McCorkle included four fabricated 2019 IRS Form 941 Employer's Quarterly Federal Tax Returns for each quarter of the year. The documents falsely indicated that Real Transitions LLC employed 15 workers and withheld more than $100,000 in federal income taxes in 2019.

But the IRS Forms 941 were not legitimate, as the information within them was false. Real Transitions did not pay any wages to or withhold federal income tax from any employees during the 2019 tax year. Based on the false representations and fraudulent submissions on behalf of McCorkle, and the PPP loan funded, Cross River Bank distributed approximately $246,500 to a Municipal Employees Credit Union (MECU) account that McCorkle controlled.

McCorkle agreed to pay his co-conspirator a kickback payment for helping submit the false application and obtaining the fraudulent PPP loan. After McCorkle received the PPP loan funds, he provided his co-conspirator with a check in the amount of $49,300, exactly 20 percent of the PPP loan amount.

In addition to the $49,300 kickback he paid to the co-conspirator, McCorkle also used the fraudulently obtained PPP funds for multiple impermissible purposes under the PPP. McCorkle used the fraudulently obtained PPP funds to buy and rehabilitate real estate in Baltimore City, pay credit-card expenses, and to make large withdrawals for his own benefit.

On June 5, more than $98,000 was withdrawn from the account in two transactions, including a bank check payable to McCorkle for $49,100. Then on June 15, two withdrawals totaling more than $28,000 were made from the account. On June 19, a withdrawal of $14,500 was made from the account. Then McCorkle accessed the remaining loan proceeds via cash withdrawals, debit-card purchases, and other electronic payments in June, July, August, and September. By October 1, the balance sat at approximately $3,400 in the account.

According to his plea agreement, McCorkle also admitted that he obtained more than $227,000 in EIDL funds for a purported business and used those funds for multiple impermissible purposes under the EIDL program. He used loan proceeds to make mortgage payments for McCorkle's primary residence, purchases at restaurants and retail stores, and payments to relatives, associates, and co-conspirators.

McCorkle faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison followed by up to three years of supervised release. U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett scheduled sentencing for Tuesday, January 27, 2026, at 2:30 p.m.

The District of Maryland Strike Force is one of five strike forces established throughout the United States by the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute COVID-19 fraud, including fraud relating to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. The CARES Act was designed to provide emergency financial assistance to Americans suffering the economic effects caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The strike forces focus on large-scale, multi-state pandemic relief fraud perpetrated by criminal organizations and transnational actors. The strike forces are interagency law enforcement efforts, using prosecutor-led and data analyst-driven teams designed to identify and bring to justice those who stole pandemic relief funds.

For more information on the Department's response to the pandemic, please visit justice.gov/coronavirus. Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice's National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at: justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.

U.S. Attorney Hayes commended the FBI and BCPD for their work in the investigation. Ms. Hayes also thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Paul A. Riley and Paul E. Budlow, who are prosecuting the case, and recognized Paralegal Specialists Juliette Jarman and Joanna B.N. Huber, for their valuable assistance.

For more information about the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office, its priorities, and resources available to report fraud, visit justice.gov/usao-md and justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

# # #