Restitution Requirements in PPP Fraud Cases
So your probably wondering how much you’ll have to pay back if your convicted of PPP fraud, and the answer is—EVERYTHING, plus potentially more. Federal law requires courts to order full restitution in fraud cases under the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act (18 U.S.C. § 3663A), and judges have no discretion about whether to impose it. If you took $50,000 in fraudulent PPP loans, you’ll owe at least $50,000 in restitution. If you took $500,000, you owe $500,000. And in some cases, courts have ordered restitution ABOVE the loan amount to account for interest, investigation costs, and administrative expenses.
We represent clients in PPP and EIDL fraud cases throughout California and the federal system, and restitution is one of the most misunderstood aspects of sentencing. Defendants think that because the loan was “forgiven” by the lender, or because the statute of limitations is running, or because there declaring bankruptcy, they won’t have to pay it back. That’s all wrong. The restitution obligation is mandatory, it survives bankruptcy, there’s no statute of limitations on collecting it, and it follows you for the rest of your life until it’s paid in full. Even if you serve your prison sentence and complete supervised release, the restitution debt remains until every penny is paid.
The good news—if there is any—is that paying restitution BEFORE sentencing can significantly reduce your prison sentence or even result in probation in small-dollar cases. Judges view early restitution as powerful evidence of remorse and accountability. We’ve had clients borrow money from family, liquidate retirement accounts, sell property, and do whatever it took to pay full restitution before there sentencing hearing, and it made the difference between 18 months in prison and probation. But if you wait until after sentencing, your looking at monthly payment plans that can stretch for decades while interest accrues and you pay probation supervision fees on top of the restitution amount.
Am I Required to Pay Restitution If Convicted of PPP Fraud?
Yes, restitution is mandatory in federal fraud cases. Under the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act, federal courts MUST order restitution in cases involving fraud or other offenses against property, including cases where the fraud targeted federal programs like PPP. The statute says the court “shall order” restitution—not “may order” or “can consider ordering.” It’s not discretionary. If your convicted of PPP fraud, restitution will be part of your sentence, period.
The amount of restitution is the full amount of the victim’s loss, which in PPP fraud cases means the amount of fraudulent loan proceeds you received. If you received $75,000 in PPP funds through a fraudulent application, the restitution amount is at least $75,000. If you received $500,000 across three different fraudulent applications, the restitution is at least $500,000. The calculation is straightforward—you pay back what you took.
Some defendants argue that because the PPP loan was technically made by a private lender (bank or credit union), not the federal government, restitution shouldn’t apply or should be limited. That argument fails. The PPP loans were 100% guaranteed by the SBA, meaning the federal government bore the loss when the loans were fraudulently obtained and later forgiven or defaulted. The victim for restitution purposes is the United States, represented by the SBA, and the amount is the full loan amount that was fraudulently obtained.
The procedures for determining restitution are governed by 18 U.S.C. § 3664, which requires the court to determine the amount of loss sustained by each victim as a result of the offense. The government bears the burden of proving the amount of loss by a preponderance of the evidence (more likely than not). In PPP fraud cases, this is usually easy—the government produces the loan application showing the amount requested, the disbursement records showing the amount funded, and documentation of the fraudulent statements that led to approval. The defendant can dispute the amount, but unless you can show that part of the application was legitimate or that some of the funds were returned before detection, the restitution will be the full loan amount.
How Much Restitution Will I Owe?
The baseline restitution amount is the total fraudulent PPP loan proceeds you received. If you got one loan for $35,000, you owe $35,000. If you got three loans totaling $180,000, you owe $180,000. That’s the minimum. But there are situations where restitution can exceed the loan amount:
Interest. In some cases, courts have ordered restitution to include interest on the loan amount from the date of loss to the date of sentencing. This is less common in PPP cases than in traditional fraud cases, but it can happen. A case in 2024 involved a defendant ordered to pay $962,438 in restitution for loans totaling approximately $913,000—the difference included interest and other costs. Whether interest is included depends on the specific circumstances and the court’s interpretation of what’s necessary to make the victim whole.
Investigation costs. The government can sometimes recover the costs of investigating the fraud as part of restitution, particularly if those costs are directly attributable to the defendant’s conduct. If your fraud was particularly sophisticated and required extensive investigation—forensic accounting, multiple agency coordination, international inquiries—those costs might be added to restitution. This is more common in large-scale fraud cases than in simple single-application PPP fraud.
Administrative expenses. If the victim (the SBA or lending institution) incurred administrative costs as a direct result of the fraud—costs to reverse transactions, audit the loan, unwind forgiveness, coordinate with law enforcement—those can potentially be included in restitution. Again, this is fact-specific and doesn’t apply in every case, but it’s a possibility.
Losses to third parties. If your fraud caused losses to victims beyond the government—for example, if you ran a loan-prep scheme where you charged innocent businesses for help getting PPP loans and provided them with fraudulent applications that got them prosecuted or denied—those victims’ losses might be included in your restitution obligation. The Mandatory Victims Restitution Act requires restitution for ALL victims of the offense, not just the primary target.
In practice, most PPP fraud restitution orders equal the loan amount without additional enhancements. But defendants should understand that the court has authority to go higher if the evidence supports it. And if you received multiple loans—say, $50,000 for Business A, $75,000 for Business B, and $100,000 for Business C—your restitution is $225,000, not the largest single loan. Every fraudulent dollar has to be repaid.
What If I Spent the Money or Don’t Have It Anymore?
Doesn’t matter. Restitution is based on the loss you CAUSED, not on your current ability to pay. If you received $100,000 in fraudulent PPP funds and spent every penny of it on rent, payroll, inventory, living expenses, or luxury items, you still owe $100,000 in restitution. The fact that the money is gone doesn’t eliminate the obligation—it just means you’ll be making payments for years or decades until it’s paid off.
The court determines restitution amount at sentencing based on the loss, then considers your financial circumstances when setting the payment schedule. Under 18 U.S.C. § 3572(d), if the defendant doesn’t have the ability to pay the full amount immediately, the court sets a schedule of payments. That schedule is based on your income, assets, financial obligations, and ability to earn in the future. The court can order payments to begin immediately or can defer them if your incarcerated, and can modify the schedule based on changed circumstances.
Here’s how it typically works. Let’s say you owe $80,000 in restitution and your sentenced to 18 months in prison followed by 3 years supervised release. While your in prison, BOP can deduct up to 50% of your inmate account deposits (money family sends you for commissary) toward restitution under the Inmate Financial Responsibility Program. So if your family sends you $100/month, $50 goes to restitution and you get $50 for commissary. That’s usually a small amount—maybe $900 over 18 months if you get $50/month deposited.
When you’re released to supervised release, probation sets a monthly payment amount based on your income and expenses. If your working and earning $3,000/month after taxes, probation might require $300-500/month in restitution payments, plus $25-40/month in supervision fees. That continues for the duration of supervised release (3 years in this example), so you’d pay approximately $10,800-18,000 during that period. You’ve now paid maybe $12,000-19,000 total, and you still owe $61,000-68,000 when supervised release ends. But the obligation doesn’t END—it continues until it’s paid in full, and the government can use civil collection methods to recover it.
Some defendants think they can just stop paying once supervised release ends. That’s a mistake. The restitution order is enforceable as a civil judgment, and the government can garnish your wages, levy bank accounts, place liens on property, intercept tax refunds, and use other collection tools to recover the money. You can’t discharge restitution through bankruptcy under 11 U.S.C. § 1328(a)(3)—it’s specifically excluded from dischargeable debts. And there’s no statute of limitations—the government can pursue collection for the rest of your life.
Can I Negotiate a Lower Restitution Amount?
In most PPP fraud cases, no—the restitution amount is determined by the loan proceeds you fraudulently obtained, and that’s not negotiable. But there ARE situations where you can dispute the amount or argue for a calculation that results in a lower number. The most common disputes involve:
Partially legitimate applications. If your PPP application included SOME legitimate expenses along with inflated or fabricated numbers, you can argue that only the fraudulent portion should count for restitution. For example, if your 2019 payroll was actually $60,000 but you claimed $100,000, resulting in a loan of $25,000 when you were only entitled to $15,000, you might argue that restitution should be $10,000 (the overage) rather than $25,000 (the full loan). The government will usually counter that you weren’t entitled to ANY loan because you made material false statements, so the entire $25,000 is loss. This dispute gets resolved by the judge at sentencing based on the evidence.
Funds returned before detection. If you received $50,000 and voluntarily returned $20,000 before any investigation started (not after you were contacted by law enforcement), you can argue that the actual loss was $30,000. The key is “before detection”—if you paid back money AFTER the fraud was discovered, it doesn’t reduce the restitution amount for guideline purposes, though it might be mitigation the judge considers for sentence length. If you returned money before anyone knew there was fraud, that’s a stronger argument that the actual loss was lower.
Forgiven portions that weren’t fraudulent. PPP loans were designed to be forgiven if the funds were used for qualifying expenses. If you received $40,000, used $30,000 for legitimate payroll and rent (which would have qualified for forgiveness), and spent $10,000 on personal items, you might argue that the loss is only $10,000 because the other $30,000 would have been forgiven anyway. This is a tough argument—the government will say that your fraud tainted the entire application, so you weren’t entitled to ANY forgiveness. But if the evidence shows most of the spending was legitimate, it might reduce restitution.
Joint liability with co-defendants. If multiple defendants participated in a PPP fraud scheme, restitution can be joint and several—each defendant is liable for the full amount, but the victim only recovers once. So if you and two co-defendants obtained $150,000 fraudulently, each of you owes $150,000 in restitution, but the government can only collect $150,000 total. If one co-defendant pays $100,000, you still OWE $150,000 but the government can only collect the remaining $50,000 from you. This doesn’t reduce your liability, but it affects what you’ll actually end up paying.
These disputes are litigated at sentencing. The government files a sentencing memorandum with a proposed restitution amount and supporting documentation. If you disagree, your attorney files an objection, and the court holds an evidentiary hearing where both sides present evidence. The burden is on the government to prove the amount of loss by a preponderance of the evidence, but in most PPP fraud cases, that’s easy—they have the loan documents showing what you received. Your burden is to prove that the loss should be calculated differently.
In plea agreements, restitution amounts are sometimes stipulated—both sides agree to a specific number, and the judge typically adopts it unless it’s clearly wrong. If your attorney can negotiate a restitution stipulation that’s favorable (maybe the government agrees the loss is $75,000 rather than $100,000 because some of the application was legitimate), that’s binding at sentencing. But prosecutors are usually reluctant to stipulate to amounts below the full loan proceeds unless there’s solid evidence supporting a lower number.
What Happens If I Can’t Afford to Pay Restitution?
The court still orders it, and you pay what you can based on a schedule set by probation. Inability to pay doesn’t eliminate the obligation—it just affects the payment schedule and the consequences for non-payment. Under federal law, the court considers your financial resources, earning ability, and financial obligations when setting the payment schedule. If your indigent and have no realistic ability to pay, the court might set nominal payments like $25/month, but the full amount remains due.
During supervised release, probation monitors your compliance with the payment schedule. If your ordered to pay $300/month and you miss payments, probation can file a violation petition. The court then holds a hearing to determine whether your failure to pay was willful. If the court finds you had the ability to pay but chose not to, you can be violated and sent to prison for up to the maximum term of supervised release (usually 3 years for fraud offenses). If the court finds you genuinely couldn’t afford the payments, they might modify the schedule or continue you on supervised release without additional penalties.
The key is WILLFULNESS. The Supreme Court held in Bearden v. Georgia that courts can’t imprison people merely for being too poor to pay fines or restitution. But if you had the ability to pay and spent money on other things instead—bought a car, took a vacation, made luxury purchases—the failure is willful and can result in incarceration. So if your struggling to make payments, you need to document your efforts, show probation your income and expenses, ask for modification of the schedule, and demonstrate that your making good-faith efforts to pay whatever you can.
After supervised release ends, the obligation continues as a civil debt. The government can refer your case to the Treasury Department for collection, and there can use all the tools available to civil creditors—wage garnishment (typically 15% of disposable income), bank account levies, tax refund intercepts, liens on real property, and civil lawsuits. The Financial Litigation Unit of the Department of Justice handles collection of outstanding restitution, and there aggressive about pursuing it.
Some defendants think they can hide income or assets to avoid payment. That’s a terrible idea. First, it can result in additional criminal charges for obstruction or fraud. Second, if you’re still on supervised release, hiding assets is a violation that can send you back to prison. Third, the government has extensive tools for discovering assets—they can subpoena bank records, review tax returns, investigate property ownership, and track financial activity. If they discover you’ve been hiding money or assets to avoid restitution, you’ll face consequences far worse than just paying what you owe.
Does Paying Restitution Before Sentencing Help Reduce My Sentence?
Yes, paying full restitution before sentencing is one of the most effective mitigation strategies in PPP fraud cases. It demonstrates genuine remorse and acceptance of responsibility, it eliminates the victim’s financial loss (which is the primary harm from fraud), and it shows you have support and resources (family willing to help, assets you were willing to liquidate) that make you a better candidate for leniency. Almost every PPP fraud case that resulted in probation involved full pre-sentencing restitution.
The timing matters enormously. Restitution paid BEFORE any investigation started is the strongest mitigation—it suggests you realized your mistake and tried to fix it on your own. Restitution paid AFTER investigators contacted you but before charges were filed still demonstrates accountability. Restitution paid after indictment but well before sentencing (months in advance, not days) shows commitment. Restitution paid the week before sentencing—while better than nothing—looks like your motivated primarily by wanting a lighter sentence rather than genuine remorse.
Here’s what full pre-sentencing restitution accomplishes. First, it’s a concrete action that backs up your expressions of remorse. Anyone can say “I’m sorry”—paying back $50,000 proves it. Second, it eliminates one of the judge’s concerns at sentencing. If restitution has been paid, the judge doesn’t have to worry about ordering it, monitoring compliance, or dealing with collection issues. That’s one less reason to impose a harsh sentence. Third, it distinguishes you from the majority of defendants who show up at sentencing owing money. You’re the exception, and judges notice.
We’ve had clients pay $30,000, $50,000, $80,000, $100,000+ in restitution before sentencing—money borrowed from family members, loans from retirement accounts, sales of vehicles or property, whatever it took. In cases where the guideline range was 12-18 months, full restitution combined with other mitigation resulted in probation. In cases where the range was 24-30 months, restitution resulted in sentences of 12-15 months. It’s not a guarantee of probation, but it’s the single most important thing you can DO (as opposed to things about your character or circumstances that you CAN’T change) to reduce your sentence.
Partial restitution is better than no restitution, but it’s not nearly as compelling. If you owe $60,000 and pay $20,000, you’ve shown some accountability, but the judge still has to order $40,000 in restitution and monitor compliance. The question becomes: if you found $20,000, why not $60,000? Are you hiding assets? Judges sometimes view partial restitution cynically, particularly if it looks strategic rather than driven by genuine inability to pay more.
If you absolutely can’t pay full restitution before sentencing, pay as much as you possibly can and be prepared to explain why you couldn’t pay the rest. If you paid $40,000 out of $80,000 owed and the explanation is “I borrowed $40,000 from my parents, who are retired and don’t have more to lend, and I’ve liquidated all my assets—this is everything I could access,” that’s understandable. If the explanation is “I have a house with $100,000 in equity but I didn’t want to take a home equity loan,” you’ve undermined your mitigation by showing you COULD have paid more but chose not to.
Can I Set Up a Payment Plan for Restitution?
Yes, payment plans are the standard approach when defendants can’t pay full restitution immediately. The payment plan is set by probation (if your on supervised release) or by the court (if your not on supervised release), and it’s based on your income, assets, and expenses. The goal is to collect the restitution over time while allowing you to meet basic living expenses.
Typical payment plans work like this. After your conviction or while your on supervised release, you submit financial disclosure forms to probation showing your income, assets, debts, and monthly expenses. Probation calculates what you can afford to pay based on that information—usually somewhere between 10-25% of your net income, depending on your expenses and obligations. If you’re earning $3,000/month and have reasonable expenses (rent, utilities, food, transportation, child support), probation might set restitution payments at $300-500/month. If your earning $1,500/month, payments might be $150-250/month.
The payments continue for the duration of supervised release (typically 3 years for fraud), and if there’s still a balance owed after supervised release ends, the obligation continues as a civil debt. So if you owe $75,000 and pay $400/month for 36 months during supervised release, you’ll have paid $14,400, leaving $60,600 still owed. That balance doesn’t disappear—it’s enforceable by the government as a civil judgment, and there can pursue collection indefinitely.
You can request modification of the payment plan if your financial circumstances change. If you lose your job, experience a medical emergency, have a family crisis, or face other circumstances that affect your ability to pay, you can petition the court or probation to reduce the payment amount temporarily or permanently. You need to provide documentation—pay stubs showing reduced income, medical bills, proof of new expenses—and demonstrate that the current payment schedule is causing genuine hardship.
Some defendants try to negotiate payment plans as part of plea agreements. “I’ll plead guilty if the government agrees to accept $X/month in restitution for Y years, after which the balance is forgiven.” That almost NEVER works. Restitution isn’t negotiable in the same way fines are—it’s the victim’s loss, and the government doesn’t have authority to forgive it. The Mandatory Victims Restitution Act requires full restitution, not partial restitution based on what the defendant can afford. The payment SCHEDULE is flexible, but the total AMOUNT is fixed.
What About Restitution While I’m in Prison?
While your incarcerated, the Bureau of Prisons can deduct money from your inmate account toward restitution under the Inmate Financial Responsibility Program (IFRP). The program allows BOP to establish payment schedules for inmates to pay court-ordered restitution, fines, and other financial obligations. BOP can deduct up to 50% of deposits made to your inmate trust account by family or friends, and can also deduct 50% of your prison wages if you work a UNICOR job.
In practice, this means that if your family sends you $100/month for commissary, $50 goes to your financial obligations (restitution, fines, special assessments) and $50 is available for you to spend. If you work in the prison and earn $40/month, $20 goes to obligations and $20 is yours. These amounts are usually small—most inmates accumulate maybe $500-2,000 in restitution payments during their incarceration, which barely makes a dent in large restitution amounts.
The advantage of the prison payment system is that it keeps the restitution obligation “active” even while your incarcerated, and it can prevent probation violations after release if you can show you were making consistent payments throughout your sentence. The disadvantage is that it reduces the money available for commissary, phone calls, email, and other purchases that make prison life more bearable. Many families face difficult choices about whether to send money knowing half will go to restitution rather than helping there incarcerated loved one.
BOP doesn’t have discretion to waive the 50% deduction if your participating in IFRP—it’s automatic. But inmates who are indigent or who would face hardship can sometimes get exemptions. If your not receiving deposits from family and your not working a paid job, there’s nothing for BOP to deduct, and your restitution obligation essentially stays dormant until your released.
Does Restitution Go Away If I Declare Bankruptcy?
No. Restitution ordered in a criminal case is specifically NON-DISCHARGEABLE in bankruptcy under 11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(7) and (13). That means even if you file Chapter 7 bankruptcy and discharge all your other debts—credit cards, medical bills, personal loans—the restitution obligation survives and remains enforceable. This is a critical point that many defendants don’t understand. Criminal restitution is not like civil debt.
The bankruptcy code treats restitution as a debt “for a criminal fine, penalty, or forfeiture payable to and for the benefit of a governmental unit” or as a debt “for any payment of an order of restitution issued under title 18.” Both categories are explicitly excluded from discharge. The policy reason is that allowing defendants to discharge restitution through bankruptcy would undermine the purposes of restitution—making victims whole and holding offenders accountable. Congress decided that criminal defendants shouldn’t be able to escape restitution by declaring bankruptcy.
What this means in practice: if you owe $100,000 in restitution from a PPP fraud conviction, plus $50,000 in credit card debt, $30,000 in medical bills, and $20,000 in personal loans, you can discharge the $100,000 in civil debts through bankruptcy but you’ll still owe the $100,000 in restitution. Your other creditors go away, but the restitution obligation remains in full and is enforceable by the government indefinitely.
Some defendants file bankruptcy hoping it will give them breathing room to deal with restitution payments, and there IS some benefit—eliminating other debts frees up income that can go toward restitution. If your paying $1,500/month in credit card and loan payments and you discharge those debts, that $1,500/month can now go toward restitution, allowing you to pay it off faster. But the restitution itself doesn’t go away.
Civil settlements with the SBA or lender (separate from criminal restitution) ARE dischargeable in bankruptcy. If the SBA files a civil lawsuit seeking repayment of the fraudulent loan plus damages, and obtains a civil judgment, that judgment might be dischargeable depending on the circumstances. But criminal restitution ordered as part of your sentence is not. So if your facing both criminal charges and civil liability, the bankruptcy analysis is complex and requires consultation with both criminal defense and bankruptcy attorneys.
Can the Government Garnish My Wages to Collect Restitution?
Yes, once your criminal restitution order becomes a civil judgment (which happens automatically or through a simple registration process), the government can use wage garnishment to collect it. Federal law allows garnishment of up to 15% of your disposable income for repayment of federal debts, and restitution qualifies. Some states allow higher garnishment percentages, but the federal limit is 15% for debt collection (higher percentages apply for child support and tax debts).
Here’s how it works. After your sentence is imposed, the restitution order becomes enforceable as a judgment. If your on supervised release, probation collects payments as a condition of supervision. After supervised release ends, or if you stop making payments, the government can refer your case to the Treasury Department’s Financial Litigation Unit for civil collection. Treasury sends demand letters, makes payment arrangements, and if you don’t pay voluntarily, initiates garnishment.
The garnishment process involves the government serving paperwork on your employer requiring them to withhold 15% of your disposable earnings (gross pay minus legally required deductions like taxes and Social Security) and send it to the government. Your employer has no choice—they have to comply with the garnishment order or face there own liability. The garnishment continues until the debt is paid in full or until the government releases it.
The practical impact is that if your earning $4,000/month gross ($3,000 net), 15% garnishment is $450/month sent to the government before you ever see it. You receive $2,550/month, and the government gets $450 toward your restitution. If you owe $75,000, it’ll take nearly 14 years at that rate to pay it off (not accounting for interest if the court ordered it). That’s a substantial impact on your ability to support yourself and your family, but there’s limited ability to challenge it once the restitution order is entered.
You can request a hearing to challenge garnishment based on financial hardship—if the garnishment would prevent you from meeting basic living expenses, the court might reduce the amount or temporarily suspend it. But the burden is on you to prove hardship, and courts are skeptical of claims that you can’t afford 15% garnishment. The threshold for hardship is high—you essentially have to show that garnishment would leave you unable to afford food, housing, or other necessities.
How Long Do I Have to Pay Restitution?
There’s no time limit—the restitution obligation continues until it’s paid in full. Unlike some civil debts that have statutes of limitations (the creditor has X years to sue you, after which the debt becomes unenforceable), criminal restitution has no statute of limitations for collection. The government can pursue collection for 10 years, 20 years, 50 years—for the rest of your life if necessary.
This is a crucial point that defendants often don’t understand until it’s too late. They serve there prison sentence (18 months), complete supervised release (3 years), and think there “done” with the case. But if they still owe $50,000 in restitution, there not done—the debt remains enforceable indefinitely. The government can garnish there wages, intercept there tax refunds, place liens on property they acquire, levy bank accounts, and pursue collection using any legal means available.
Some defendants have been paying restitution for 15, 20, 25+ years after there conviction. There’s no “aging out” of the obligation. If you owe $100,000 and pay $300/month, it’ll take 27+ years to pay off (assuming no interest). If you owe $500,000 and pay $1,000/month, it’ll take 41+ years. Most people will be paying restitution for the rest of there working lives, and if they die before it’s paid off, the government can file claims against there estates to recover any remaining balance.
The only way to end the restitution obligation early (other than paying it off) is if the victim (the government) releases you from it, which essentially never happens in criminal restitution cases. Or if a court modifies or vacates the restitution order on appeal or through post-conviction proceedings, which is extremely rare and requires showing legal error in how the restitution was calculated.
This is why paying restitution BEFORE sentencing is so important—not just because it helps reduce your prison sentence, but because it eliminates a financial obligation that will otherwise follow you for decades. If you can borrow money from family, liquidate assets, or scrape together the funds to pay full restitution upfront, you avoid 20-30 years of monthly payments, wage garnishment, and government collection efforts. It’s worth enormous sacrifice to pay it off early if you possibly can.
What Happens If I Win on Appeal or Get My Conviction Overturned?
If your conviction is overturned on appeal, the restitution order is vacated as well—you don’t owe it anymore because there’s no underlying conviction to support it. If you’ve already paid some or all of the restitution, you’re entitled to a refund. But this scenario is rare. Most criminal appeals are unsuccessful, and most convictions are affirmed. You shouldn’t count on winning on appeal as a way to avoid restitution.
If your appeal results in a remand for resentencing (the conviction stands but there was error in sentencing), the restitution order might be reconsidered at the new sentencing. If the original restitution calculation was wrong—based on an incorrect loss amount, included amounts that shouldn’t have been included, or violated some legal principle—the new sentencing might result in a lower restitution amount. But if the restitution calculation was correct, it’ll likely be the same amount at the new sentencing.
Some defendants confuse restitution with fines or guideline calculations. Fines are discretionary and can be challenged on appeal if there disproportionate or inappropriate. Guideline calculations can be appealed if the court made legal errors in determining offense level or criminal history. But restitution is based on the victim’s actual loss, and as long as the court correctly calculated that loss, there’s little basis for appeal. Saying “I can’t afford to pay $75,000” isn’t grounds for overturning a restitution order if you actually defrauded the victim out of $75,000.
The bottom line is that if your convicted of PPP fraud, you WILL owe restitution for the full amount of fraudulent loans you received, and that obligation will follow you until it’s paid. The strategies are to pay it before sentencing if possible (to reduce your prison sentence), to make consistent payments if you can’t pay it all upfront (to avoid probation violations and additional collection efforts), and to document financial hardship if you genuinely can’t afford the payment schedule (to protect against willfulness findings). But there’s no way to eliminate the obligation short of paying it in full or having your conviction overturned.
If your facing PPP fraud charges, talk to an experienced federal criminal defense attorney about restitution immediately. The decisions you make about how to handle restitution—whether to pay upfront, how much to borrow, whether to liquidate assets—can affect your sentencing outcome by years. We represent clients in PPP and EIDL fraud cases throughout California and the federal system, and we help them develop restitution strategies that minimize both prison time and long-term financial consequences. Call us for a consultation.