Ex-mayoral candidate blew $323,000 COVID loan on Georgia home — and new pool, feds say
In 2017, Olivia Ware promoted herself as a community leader, entrepreneur and CEO while running for mayor in a city just outside of Atlanta.
Now the 61-year-old is accused of buying an in-ground pool with money she reportedly scammed from a federal COVID-19 relief program.
Ware was charged in federal court Tuesday with bank fraud and money laundering, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Georgia said in a news release.
“Ware tried to defraud the government out of money meant to help small businesses affected by the pandemic continue operations and take care of their employees,” Special Agent in Charge Katrina W. Berger said in the release. “Instead of helping others through a difficult time as the money was intended, she used the money for personal gain.”
Federal court documents were not immediately available Tuesday, and a request for comment sent to the nonprofit Ware reportedly runs and her candidate email address went unanswered.
But according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Ware was previously a candidate for mayor in Conyers — a city of roughly 16,000 people just east of Atlanta, U.S. Census records show. She was one of three candidates on the ballot and received 198 votes, or about 18.8%.
The winning candidate in 2017 got more than 52% of the vote, Rockdale County election records show.
Ware’s alleged fraud began last year, when prosecutors say she filed an application for a loan through the Paycheck Protection Program. A PPP loan is backed by the Small Business Administration and was offered to small businesses struggling to stay afloat during the coronavirus pandemic.
Ware filed the application on behalf of a company called “Let’s Talk About the Family LLC.” The company is listed as a nonprofit with the Georgia Corporations Division and was reportedly formed in 1994 with Ware as the CEO.
It was last registered in 2020, records show.
The company’s website describes it as a nonprofit that helps low-income families, and Ware is listed as the CEO, founder and chairman of the board.
In her application for coronavirus relief funds, Ware said she employed 54 people who “were paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in salary,” according to prosecutors. She subsequently received a PPP loan for more than $323,000, according to Tuesday’s news release.
“Praise God, I’m glad that I’m talking,” Ware told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in September after she received the funds.
But after some digging, the newspaper found little was known about the purported large-scale operation that Ware said she ran . She didn’t explain the source of her company’s revenue, and two people who used to work for her told the Journal-Constitution the company flat-out didn’t exist.
Ware also said she employed two dozen people — not 54, like her loan application stated, the newspaper reported.
Agents with Homeland Security Investigations later discovered Ware didn’t pay wages to any employees last year, prosecutors said.
Ware is accused of using the PPP loan she received to pay for an in-ground pool, furniture and home improvements. She also reportedly spent a portion of it paying down the principal on her mortgage.
Prosecutors said Ware was charged by criminal information on Tuesday but is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
This story was originally published March 16, 2021 at 6:30 PM with the headline "Ex-mayoral candidate blew $323,000 COVID loan on Georgia home — and new pool, feds say."
