LEXINGTON, Ky. — A central Kentucky businessman who submitted false information to receive $1.3 million in coronavirus relief loans and used some of it for gambling debts has been sentenced to three years and six months in federal prison.
Randall “Rocky” Blankenship Jr. also must pay a $30,000 fine, according to a news release from the office of U.S. Attorney Carlton S. Shier IV.
U.S. District Judge Karen C. Caldwell sentenced Blankenship on Thursday. He had pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiring to commit wire fraud.
Blankenship, 49, of Versailles, operated a business called KY Bluegrass RV and Camping LLC but also had four shell companies, according to court records.
The shell companies were Blankenship RV Finance Solutions LLC, RSGG Properties LLC, RSGG Holdings LLC, and RSGG Investments LLC.
Those companies didn’t have any employees, but Blankenship claimed they did and used them to apply for four loans under the Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP.
That was a program Congress rushed through in March 2020 to help businesses weather the economic downturn resulting from the coronavirus pandemic. The loans were intended to keep employees on the payroll and were designed to be forgiven if the recipient used them for approved purposes.
With the help of an accountant, Blankenship created fake documents showing payroll costs totaling $1,323,829 at the businesses, when in fact they had no payroll costs, according to his plea agreement.
Blankenship had…
