Pastor, former college basketball player gets 30 months for PPP loan, tax fraud

Ricky Lee Taylor, a former University of Tennessee at Chattanooga basketball player turned pastor and businessman, has been sentenced to 30 months in prison and three years of probation after pleading guilty to wire and tax fraud connected to his abuse of the federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Taylor, the senior pastor of Arena of Praise in Chattanooga, who also ran several businesses, admitted in a letter to U.S. District Judge Charles E. Atchley, Jr., earlier this month that he abused the PPP program by applying for more money than he could legally justify. 

During the pandemic, a public health emergency that lasted from Jan. 30, 2020, to May 5, 2023, the government’s PPP program offered loans designed to provide a direct incentive for small businesses, including faith-based organizations and other nonprofits, to keep their workers on the payroll. As long as all employees were kept on the payroll for eight weeks and the funds were used for payroll, rent, mortgage interest, or utilities, these loans, which were administered by banks and other federally insured depository institutions, were forgiven.

The companies the pastor ran include Potter’s Wheel Trucking, LLC; Ricky Taylor Basketball, LLC; Arena of Praise; Spirit Logistics, LLC; and Reap Real Estate and Property.

“I wholeheartedly admit that I was wrong for requesting so much, and I take full responsibility for my actions and decisions. Whenever you build a business from the ground up, it’s like a baby … and just like any other parent, you will do anything for your ‘baby,’” Taylor, 36, wrote in a Jan. 2 letter to Atchley.

“That’s all I was trying to do — I was trying to take care of my baby. The last thing I wanted to see was my business burn to the ground. In December 2022, I had to cease operations because we ran out of money to keep the company afloat.”

Court documents reviewed by The Christian Post, along with a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Tennessee, state that Taylor applied for PPP loans on behalf of all his business operations and submitted eight fraudulent applications.

As a result of those applications, he collected approximately $1.8 million in loans, “which significantly exceeded any amount to which he would have been legally entitled,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. He later filed fraudulent personal tax returns that did not reflect income from the loans.

In addition to the prison time he is expected to serve, Taylor will have to pay a money judgment of over $942,000 and more than $2.5 million in restitution to the United States.

In his letter to Judge Atchley, Taylor spoke of his brief career as an accountant, basketball player and coach before being called into Christian ministry. He stated that when he started his trucking business, he realized he could help friends with criminal records get a second chance in life through gainful employment, but the pandemic disrupted everything.

Taylor said he succumbed to dishonest means in a bid to keep his business afloat, but has since found that the Bible is right when it warns against dishonesty in Proverbs 13:11.

 “‘Wealth gained by dishonesty will be diminished, but he who gathers by labor will increase.’  That’s exactly what happened — The funds that I received during the pandemic were gained by dishonesty and as of today, those funds have been diminished. I kept wondering why the trucks kept breaking down. Why did drivers start betraying me and leaving me for other companies?” Taylor asked in his letter to the judge. “Why is everything falling apart? ... it’s because of this principle alone. We started gaining wealth by dishonesty, and God had to strip it all away because He is a God of principles.”