HPM Corporation, the occupational health services contractor to the Hanford site, and its owners, Grover Cleveland Mooers and Hollie Mooers, will pay $2.94 million in restitution and penalties to resolve civil and criminal liabilities associated with allegations they defrauded the federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).

Vanessa Waldref, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Washington, announced the settlement agreement in March. The settlement also resolves individual False Claims Act liability of the owners.

According to the Department of Justice, HPMC applied for and secured a $1.35 million PPP loan in April 2020, one month after Congress established the program under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act during the early job-killing days of the Covid-19 pandemic.

PPP loans were guaranteed by the U.S. government and could be forgiven by the Small Business Administration if they were used to for payroll and other expenses. HPMC and its owners applied for forgiveness for the loan.

As part of the settlement, the company and its owners acknowledged they knowingly said the loan had been used for payroll and other allowable expenses when it had not. The couple transferred the entire loan amount to their personal account.

HPMC agreed to pay $2.7 million in restitution and penalties and agreed to a three-year probational period following the filing and during the deferral of federal criminal charges in which it may not commit any further criminal or civil offenses. It must immediately report any credible evidence of any violations to the government.

The couple agreed to pay an additional $250,000 civil penalty from personal funds. Grover Cleveland Mooers agreed to step down as a governor of the company or to serve as a principal employee, manager or advisor during the three-year probationary period.

The company agreed to hire an independent auditor at its own expense.

“These funds were intended to help small and local businesses and keep the communities of Eastern Washington safe and strong, not to line the pockets of millionaire owners,” Waldref said in a statement announcing the settlement.

The case was investigated as part of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Covid-19 Fraud Strike Force, an interagency team of federal law enforcement agencies dedicated to combatting Covid relief fraud in Eastern Washington.

The HPMC case was investigated by the Department of Justice as well as the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) Richland Field Office and SBA OIG’s Seattle Field Office.