Marcel Gross

Sentenced. Gross, 56, was sentenced on October 13, 2026 to four years of probation and $350,272 in restitution for conspiracy to commit wire fraud in a Paycheck Protection Program loan scheme.

Introduction

Marcel Gross, 56, of Slidell, Louisiana, was sentenced on October 13, 2026 to four years of probation and $350,272 in restitution for conspiracy to commit wire fraud — his share of a Paycheck Protection Program loan scheme in which he funneled 40 percent of a fraudulently obtained loan back to a coconspirator, check by timed check . The sentence was announced by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana on October 19, 2026, after U.S. District Judge Darrel James Papillion imposed it . The case is a pandemic-fraud prosecution in miniature: one forgivable loan meant for payroll, a middleman who passed the money uphill, and a payment schedule designed to stay under the thresholds that trip bank monitoring .

Background Information

The PPP was a form of assistance authorized by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act in response to the COVID-19 pandemic — forgivable loans designed to enable businesses to meet payroll expenses . Gross fraudulently obtained such a loan, and then complied with a coconspirator’s instructions to pay that coconspirator 40 percent of the loan amount back — in the form of numerous checks that would be negotiated over multiple weeks so as not to “flag” . The scheme’s structure is the prosecution’s evidence: a loan taken on payroll pretenses, a 40-percent kickback, and a staggered negotiation calendar built to keep each transaction below the level that draws a bank’s attention .

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

What Gross was sentenced for is the conspiracy to commit wire fraud — the agreement to obtain the pandemic loan by fraud and to move its proceeds to a coconspirator who took a 40-percent cut . The restitution figure of $350,272 measures the loan loss tied to his role . The release is spare on the scheme’s origins: it does not name the coconspirator whose instructions Gross followed, describe how the loan application itself was falsified, or say what business the loan was drawn against . What it fixes is the division of the money and the deliberate pacing of the payback — the two facts that show the arrangement was understood by both sides to be what it was .

Public Reaction and Consequences

The case was investigated by the FBI, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Chandra Menon of the Public Integrity Unit was in charge of the prosecution — the unit that handles public-corruption and fraud work in the district . The sentencing announcement placed the case under the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division, created April 7, and its support of the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud chaired by Vice President J.D. Vance . Judge Papillion’s sentence — probation rather than prison, with full restitution — is the disposition the record carries .

Current Status

Gross, 56, is serving a four-year probation term and owes $350,272 in restitution under the October 13, 2026 judgment . The release does not describe any charges against the coconspirator who received the 40 percent, or state whether more defendants are expected in the same scheme . The conviction for conspiracy to commit wire fraud is final at the district-court level as announced, with restitution as the continuing obligation .

Impact on Their Career/Life

At 56, Gross exits the case without a prison term but with a federal fraud conviction and a $350,272 restitution obligation that follows him through the four probation years and beyond. His role in the scheme — the man who held the loan and passed 40 percent uphill in week-spaced checks — is now the documented shape of his part in it, and the payment calendar he followed is the detail the record preserves. The case is also a data point in the district’s pandemic-fraud docket: PPP money obtained by fraud, split with a coconspirator, and traced back dollar by dollar to a Slidell man’s checking account.

Sources

• U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Louisiana, “Slidell Man Sentenced for Cares Act Fraud,” October 19, 2026 — source