BOZEMAN — A Bozeman woman is heading to federal prison for stealing COVID relief money.
A judge sentenced Alaina Marie Garcia, 41, to 30 months in prison. She will also serve five years of supervised release after her prison term.
Garcia pleaded guilty to bank fraud and money laundering in January. The charges stem from a scheme to defraud the Paycheck Protection Program.
Garcia applied for a government loan in May 2020, filing the application for a company she controlled called Bluebird Property Rentals. She told the bank that her company had 32 employees and claimed that her monthly payroll expenses exceeded $245,000.
Prosecutors say none of those statements was true. The company had no employees and never paid payroll taxes.
The government approved a $613,000 loan based on those lies. Garcia promised to use the funds to retain workers and to cover business expenses.
Instead, she spent the money on herself. Investigators say she used most of the funds to buy a large piece of property in the Bozeman area, transferring $548,000 to a law group for that real estate transaction.
Garcia later applied for loan forgiveness, falsely claiming she used the money for qualified business expenses. The government granted forgiveness before uncovering the fraud.
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