SAN ANTONIO – A former FBI employee from Schertz has been sentenced for his role in a Paycheck Protection Program fraud scheme.
Christopher James Phillips, 41, was sentenced to three months of home confinement and five years of probation after being convicted on one count of wire fraud related to the use of the Paycheck Protection Program, according to the United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas.
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Phillips formed his company — Phillips Global Realty, LLC — in December 2019 and submitted a PPP loan application in late May 2020 using his FBI-issued credentials to confirm his identity.
Phillips stated in the application that he had employed two people and had an average payroll of $15,000 per month, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He had also submitted an employer’s quarterly federal tax return for the fourth quarter of 2019, which claimed he had a payroll of $50,000 over those three months.
IRS records indicated Phillips never filed the tax return form between 2019 and 2022, making it fraudulent.
The government gave Phillips $37,500 in PPP funds to use for payroll, utilities, rent and mortgage interest on June 2, 2020. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said he wired $25,000 to a personal trading account and lost the money due to trading activities.
Phillips also paid $5,117 toward a personal auto loan and $8,500 toward his home mortgage later in June 2020, federal officials said.
The former federal employee was indicted on Jan. 3, 2024, and arrested two days later on one count of wire fraud and one count of engaging in monetary transactions over $10,000 using criminally derived proceeds.
Phillips was released the day he was arrested on a $30,000 bond.
Phillips pleaded guilty to the wire fraud charge in September 2024. He was ordered to pay $39,771 in restitution in addition to his home confinement and probation sentence.
