Former Olympian speed skater Allison Baver’s defense attorneys on Tuesday withdrew as her counsel shortly after a judge again delayed Baver’s expected sentencing.
The move pushed the decision of whether or not Baver will see prison for money laundering and making false statements to more than a year after a federal jury found her guilty.
Prosecutors say Baver received a $10 million Paycheck Protection Program loan at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic for an entertainment company that had no employees when she applied. Baver continues to argue that she did not intend to do anything wrong and wants to keep the loan.
U.S. District Judge Jill Parrish on Tuesday called the situation “very unusual” before issuing the delay. The trial, as Parrish said she observed it, raised the possibility that Baver could file an appeal on the grounds that her counsel was ineffective.
And if Baver were to be sentenced Tuesday, Parrish noted, Baver could have ended up serving most of her sentence before a potential appeal is addressed.
“I need to be honest about what I observed during the trial,” Parrish said of Baver’s defense counsel. “For reasons I don’t understand, something was wrong. Something was off.”
She added that, “As a trial judge, I’m responsible for ensuring all criminal defendants receive constitutionally adequate defense.”
Meanwhile, one of Baver’s public defenders, Robert Steele, raised the possibility that Baver could ask for a mistrial — before he asked to be removed from the case.
“We need to withdraw,” Steele said. “Someone, or two someones, need to look to see if [there should be] a motion for a mistrial.”
Parrish approved the withdrawal request and has since asked a magistrate judge to appoint Baver new counsel. The case remains stalled until then.
Baver was found guilty in June 2023 of two counts of making false statements designed to influence a bank; one count of money laundering and one count of contempt in connection with the loan she received.
Trina Higgins, the federal prosecutor overseeing Baver’s case, told Parrish on Tuesday that she thought the government’s case would hold up on appeal, even if Baver were to prove her lawyers gave an ineffective case.
“The evidence is substantial enough that she was not prejudiced by [her counsel’s] ineffectiveness,” Higgins said, “and, strictly based on her actions, we’d win.”
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Allison Baver, center right, former Olympic speed skater, enters the Orrin G. Hatch Federal Courthouse in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, October. 15, 2024.
Federal prosecutors in a filing last week recommended Baver be sentenced to 78 months in prison — or 6½ years — followed by five years of supervised release.
The recommendation, filed by Higgins on Oct. 8, says the proposed sentence takes into account that this is Baver’s first criminal conviction but also “appropriately reflects the seriousness of the offense.”
Baver’s “blatant false statements and continued refusal to accept any responsibility puts [her] at a very high risk for recidivism,” federal prosecutors argue in the filing.
“Even now, Ms. Baver continues to push the narrative that she did nothing wrong and everyone else involved was to blame for the blatantly false statements she included on her PPP application forms,” prosecutors wrote. “And while extensively blaming others for making mistakes that led to her receiving the money, Ms. Baver inexplicably maintains that she should be allowed to keep the money.”
In arguing to stay the forfeiture of a bit over $9.5 million in loan money, according to court records, Baver’s defense attorneys have noted she “proclaims her innocence and argues there was insufficient evidence to support a guilty verdict.”
Baver also “asserted at trial that she acted in good faith,” based on the “ambiguous nature of the rules surrounding the PPP loan” when she applied and other evidence.
According to the prosecution’s recommendation, Baver’s counsel requested a sentence of “CTS” — credit for time served — and three years of supervision. But, according to prosecutors, Baver “received one day of jail credit for processing but has not actually served time in custody.”
Baver, who court records indicate lives in Taylorsville, was indicted on Dec. 15, 2021. The following November, her original lawyers withdrew from the case, citing the inability to reach an engagement agreement with Baver and her company, Allison Baver Entertainment, including “compensatory obligations.” In a court filing, the lawyers also wrote that “Baver has increasingly chosen to ignore the advice of counsel.”
Federal public defenders were appointed to represent Baver, which they had done up until her legal team’s withdrawal Tuesday.
At Baver’s trial, prosecutors argued that she, as proprietor of Allison Baver Entertainment, used thousands in PPP funds — money meant to provide forgivable loans to offset costs during the COVID-19 pandemic — to pay off personal HOA dues, travel expenses, food and “other non-payroll costs.”
And while prosecutors acknowledged that Baver’s company was real, they argued none of its planned entertainment projects were “in production or even pre-production” when Baver applied for the loans in early 2020.
Baver competed in short-track speedskating in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, the 2006 games in Torino, Italy, and the 2010 games in Vancouver, B.C. In Vancouver, she earned a bronze medal as part of the U.S. 3,000-meter relay team.
— Tribune staff writer Sean P. Means contributed to this report.
Shannon Sollitt is a Report for America corps member covering business accountability and sustainability for The Salt Lake Tribune. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by clicking here.
