California trucking company owner pleads guilty to PPP fraud

The owner of two trucking companies in the Fresno, California, area pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of theft of government property in connection with loans he took under the pandemic-era Paycheck Protection Program. 

Gurjeet Bath pleaded guilty before the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California. The indictment was filed in August 2024. 

Bath’s trucking companies were G.S. Bath Inc. and Complete Transportation Solutions, based in Fresno County.

According to the indictment, Bath applied for a PPP loan soon after the program was initiated in the wake of the shutdowns and layoffs that accompanied the start of the pandemic. The requested amount was approximately $366,000 and was made for the G.S. Bath company.

Almost a year later, with the PPP program close to exhausting its funds, Bath applied for an additional $475,000 for G.S. Bath. The loan applications were made through the Small Business Administration. 

According to the indictment, Bath “falsified records he provided to the SBA to misrepresent and inflate the number of employees G.S. Bath Inc. had, and to misrepresent and inflate the gross wages paid by G.S. Bath.”

Bath also used Complete Transportation Solutions to request PPP funds. That application was made in May 2020 for approximately $198,000. The indictment said Bath did the same with that company as he did with G.S. Bath: submit false information about the number of employees and the total wages at the company.

All the loan requests were approved.

Bath quickly reached a plea agreement with prosecutors. Court documents contain a plea agreement dated Aug. 16, 2024, one day after the indictment. In the agreement, Bath agrees to plead guilty to one charge of theft of government property. 

The plea agreement includes a provision that Bath would pay a $100,000 fine. He also agreed to forfeit $841,500 and two pieces of real estate, which the plea agreement says were obtained by Bath with funds he obtained from his PPP loans.

Sentencing is set for Oct. 6. While the maximum penalty is 10 years, the plea agreement also says the federal government would recommend that Bath be given a jail sentence at the “low end” of the guidelines for the crime.

Another aspect of his sentencing: “Pleading guilty may have consequences with respect to his immigration status if he is not a citizen of the United States.”

While the plea agreement does not say what Bath’s status is – a green card holder, some other status or in the U.S. illegally – it does say that Bath “wants to plead guilty regardless of any immigration consequences that his plea may entail, even if the consequence is his automatic removal from the United States.”

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