The sentencing for a Wilson High graduate and Olympic athlete in a federal fraud case has been delayed, with the judge saying she believes the defense counsel may have been ineffective. Allison Baver, 42, who lives in Taylorsville, Utah, was convicted in June 2023 of giving false information to banks to obtain a $10 million small-business loan from government pandemic relief funding. The retired Olympic speed skater was found guilty of two counts of making false statements designed to influence a bank, one count of money laundering and one count of contempt. Prosecutors were seeking a sentence of 6 1/2 years in prison for Baver, while her defense attorneys were asking for a nonprison sentence of three years of supervised released, according to media reports. U.S. District Judge Jill Parrish was supposed to decide Tuesday whether Baver would spend time in federal prison, however Parrish instead delayed the sentencing hearing after Baver’s defense attorneys withdrew as her counsel. According to a report in The Salt Lake Tribune, Parrish said her observations of Baver’s trial led her to believe Baver may be able to file an appeal on the grounds that her representation was ineffective. If successful, such an appeal would lead to a new trial. “I need to be honest about what I observed during the trial,” the Tribune quoted Parrish as saying of Baver’s defense counsel. “For reasons I don’t understand, something was wrong. Something was off.” Parrish said that if Baver were sentenced Tuesday she could end up serving most of her sentence before a potential appeal is addressed, according to the Tribune. Parrish has asked a magistrate judge to appoint Baver new counsel. The case will be on hold until that is done. 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 were ineffective, according to the report in the Tribune. Baver was indicted in December 2021. According to a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice after her conviction: Court documents and the evidence presented at trial revealed Baver submitted eight fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program loan applications for her media company, Allison Baver Entertainment LLC. PPP loans were designed to enable small businesses to pay their employees during the COVID-19 crisis. In April 2020, Baver submitted the fraudulent PPP loan applications to Northeast Bank and Meridian Bank. The loan applications said she had 430 employees and an average monthly payroll of up to $4,770,583, but a statement from the department said she had no employees and no monthly average payroll. These false statements influenced Meridian Bank to fund her requested $10 million loan. After receiving the funds, Baver transferred $150,000 to actor Elijah Wood’s production company to fund the 2021 film “No Man of God.” The case was investigated by the FBI’s Salt Lake City Field Office, the Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General and the IRS Criminal Investigations Unit. Baver was part of a U.S. speed skating team that won a bronze medal in the 2010 Olympic Games. She also competed in the 2002 and 2006 Winter Olympics.