Lawsuit Accuses Mississippi Billionaire of PPP Fraud. Defendants Deny Wrongdoing
A lawsuit filed by Relator LLC accuses the richest man in Mississippi, Tom Duff, and his brother James Duff of defrauding the Paycheck Protection Program, the pandemic-era relief program, of $6.7 million. The Duffs deny the allegations and expect to be “fully vindicated by the judicial process,” Matthew D. Miller, one of the brother’s attorneys, told Mississippi Today.
The Department of Justice declined to intervene after Relator provided the department its findings, but allowed the lawsuit brought on behalf of the government to proceed.
The case will move to Mississippi after a federal judge in March granted the Duffs’ motion to transfer the case.
The Relator lawsuit claims the Duffs “looted the government” by filing “falsified loan documents to the Small Business Administration in order to obtain taxpayer-funded payments through the Paycheck Protection Program.”
According to the documents, the brothers applied for the loans using their tire company, the Southern Tire Mart, which is valued at upward of $3.5 billion.
Congress created the program in March of 2020 to keep businesses afloat as the global economy slowed to a halt at the outset of the pandemic.
TRENDING ARTICLES
As seen in court filings, the attorneys for the Duff brothers refuted the claims, arguing the lawsuit relies on “inflammatory rhetoric” instead of factual evidence.
The brothers’ legal team noted that the California attorneys acting against them have filed similar lawsuits against other individuals, some of which have been dismissed by federal judges. They also claim the lawsuit is the product of trial lawyers looking to score judicial wins from the grey area surrounding pandemic-era government programs.
“The PPP loans were lawfully obtained, fully disclosed and reviewed by banks, the SBA and federal attorneys,” Miller wrote in a statement to Mississippi Today. “This case is exactly the kind of parasitic, web-scraped lawsuit that courts have repeatedly rejected from this plaintiff. The allegations were also independently reviewed by the Department of Justice which, after this review, declined to intervene in this lawsuit.”
Tom Duff is rumored to be running for governor in 2027.
“If he decides to run for governor, he’s absolutely among the top runners, if not the top runner,” said Austin Barbour, a state and national GOP strategist and lobbyist.
Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson told Mississippi Today that Tom Duff is “someone who could really excite all of Mississippi” as a candidate for governor.
In recent months, the brothers have created the Duff PAC, which will be used to support candidates in the state’s gubernatorial race.
A correction to this story was added on May, 21, 2026. This story incorrectly claimed, in the headline and text of the story, that the Duff brothers are under investigation by the DOJ for the allegations made in the lawsuit brought by Relator. While the Department of Justice was referred these allegations, it declined to intervene in the case and allowed Relator to proceed with the Qui Tam lawsuit.
Read the first chapter of The Woketopus right now for FREE
Today, even with President Trump’s victory, leftist elites have their tentacles in every aspect of our government.
The Daily Signal’s own Tyler O’Neil exposes this leftist cabal in his new book, The Woketopus: The Dark Money Cabal Manipulating the Federal Government.
In this book, O’Neil reveals how the Left’s NGO apparatus pursues its woke agenda, maneuvering like an octopus by circumventing Congress and entrenching its interests in the federal government.
You can read the first chapter of this new book for FREE in this eBook, The Woketopus: Chapter One using the secure link below.
TRENDING ARTICLES
The Daily Signal depends on the support of readers like you.
RELATED ARTICLES
Don’t miss the
Don’t miss the signal
