Fraud became rampant through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans offered to businesses during the Covid era. While it is well known that many shady businessmen have been caught falsifying business records and blatantly misrepresenting facts for PPP loans, locals in Morrison County are alleging such actions were committed by their very own State Representative, RINO Ron Kresha (10A).

Locals and conservative activists brought forward evidence at a recent Morrison County GOP meeting to argue that Rep. Ron Kresha received PPP loans with falsified records claiming to have employees when his company doesn't have any. This evidence was given to the other District 10 State Representative Isaac Schultz (10B) to investigate as Schultz sits on the state House Fraud committee. Kresha did not show up to the meeting despite being invited multiple times according to the Morrison County Republican Party. Kresha was also recently condemned by Morrison County GOP due to his ultra-liberal voting record.

According to the Department of Treasury, a company cannot list independent contractors as employees for the purpose of calculating their PPP loan amount. Instead, independent contractors were eligible to apply for their own PPP loans. Morrison County locals tell us small businesses with dozens of employees in the community received loans that were peanuts in comparison to Kresha's company.

Included in the documents presented to the 30 or so attendees of the Morrison County GOP BPOU meeting and given to Rep. Isaac Schultz were two PPP loans given to Kresha's company, Golden Shovel Agency LLC, which claims the company had 17 employees in April 2020 and 20 employees in March 2021. See below:

Contrary to the employee counts seen above, Ron Kresha stated in a November 2020 deposition regarding a lawsuit with former associate Mary Whelan that the company had no employees at all and instead had about 15 independent contractors who were with them. Whelan was suing Kresha in relation to lost wages and intellectual property theft. More information on this lawsuit can be found here. The questions (Q) is Whelan's attorney and the answers (A) are Kresha's responses. See below:

Kresha further stated in the deposition that him hiring independent contractors and giving them titles for the company did not constitute those people as employees. See below:

As previously stated, the Department of Treasury says PPP loans were not allowed to calculate independent contractors as employees and it would be fraud to do so. The statutes of limitations to prosecute PPP loan fraud was extended in 2022 to 10 years.

In May 2024, Steve Wenzel, a well respected longtime Representative from Little Falls called for Kresha to explain the acceptance/use of PPP loans in a letter to the editor.

Many may wonder what Kresha's business, Golden Shovel Agency, actually does. While appearing to be a vague web development, business consultant type company on their website, sources say they also are involved in writing grants and collecting a percentage of the money claimed. This could be a massive conflict of interest for Kresha as a legislator because he sits on the Commerce and Education Finance committees where many grant programs within legislation would be approved. Kresha could very well be voting for bills in order to make money off of the grants found within them!

Rep. Isaac Schultz, as a member of the Republican led House Fraud & Agency Oversight Committee, has obtained the above documents and more in relation to the alleged PPP fraud by Ron Kresha's company. Souces tell A4L Schultz left with the documents and was directed by Morrison County conservatives to take it to the Fraud Committee. Schultz is joined in the House Fraud committee by Republicans Chair Kristin Robbins (37A), Vice Chair Patti Anderson (33A), Walter Hudson (30A), Marion Rarick (29B), and Democrats Dave Pinto (64B), Steve Elkins (50B), and Emma Greenman (63B). While it may be uncomfortable to investigate potential fraud involving a legislative colleague, refusing to do so would undermine the legitimacy and purpose of a Fraud Committee.

Ron Kresha was reached out to for comment on this story and did not respond beyond an automated reply saying he will respond "as soon as possible".

A4L will keep Patriots informed as this story develops.