If convicted, EVERY faces a maximum penalty of twenty (20) years, followed by a term of supervised release for up to three (3) years, a fine up to $250,000.00, or twice the gross gain to the defendant, or twice the gross loss to any victim, and a $100.00 mandatory special assessment fee, per count. The forgivable loans were meant to cover payroll for employees and, later, other eligible expenses at a time when customers werent coming in. All rights reserved. A check of Floridas Division of Corporations database would have revealed the companies had just been reinstated. Some of these qui tam lawsuits are traditional whistleblower cases, but others involve individuals who are slicing and dicing the data that has been made available about loans, according to Grossman. SOUTHERN MAGNOLIA LANDSCAPING LLC. Horowitz, the Justice Departments inspector general, recently testified to a House panel examining COVID-19 loan fraud that a legislative reform could help address the problem of fraud in smaller dollar amounts. Shes accused of making up fake businesses to collect more than $20,000 through a PPP loan and another $500,000 in prepaid debit cards through unemployment claims. The PPP was developed to ease the pain of COVID-19 economic restraints on working Americans. Not all those loans were necessarily fraudulently obtained. And if theyre not interested in prosecuting, for whatever reason, we dont further pursue it at that time., Many of the cases are moving quickly, despite their complexity. I urge anyone who believes he or she is a victim of this type of fraud to report it to the National Center for Disaster Fraud," said US Attorney Brandon Fremin. According to the SBA, lenders are responsible for vetting applications and making sure the applicant is telling the truth in whatever way they see fit. EVERY primarily used Cash App to receive the initial payments. Name Jobs Reported Current Loan Loan Forgiveness; Amount ($) Date Approved Amount ($) Date; CONQUEST COMPLETION SERVICES, LLC: 129: 6,940,800: July 30, 2020: 7,069,157 Investigators determined there were at least 110 PPP sole proprietor loan applications in and around the Thibodeaux, Louisiana area and they all had the same invoices and federal tax forms (Schedule C) with the same business name and amounts. About one year after the passage of the CARES Act, $626 million in funds have already been seized or forfeited related to criminal and civil investigations of pandemic loan fraud. In connection with loan applications for COVID-19 relief available from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) of the SBA, the defendants falsely and grossly overstated the number of employees and payroll at their nail salons and other businesses through fraudulent and doctored payroll and tax records in order to obtain larger loans. The PPP loans are forgivable under certain conditions and the loan forgiveness is not taxable income for federal tax purposes. The cases involve attempts to steal a total of more than $175 million from the program, with actual losses to the federal government totaling more than $70 million, the DOJ reports. The DOJ says this ill-gotten money was in many cases used to buy luxury personal items like cars, homes, vacation trips, and jewelry. Federal investigators want you to speak up about PPP fraud, Federal investigators want you to speak up about PPP Fraud, LSU WR Malik Nabers arrested in New Orleans; prosecutors refuse to charge with condition, LPSO: Deputy arrested, terminated after making harassing phone calls, TikTok sets new default time limits for minors, Fight involving 9 people on Southerns campus leads to 1 arrest. POGO was unable to reach Edwards before publication. The scandal is whats legal, not whats illegal.. The line is staffed 24/7. The Economic Injury Disaster Loan program is longstanding, and until recently the Small Business Administration limited these loans to $150,000 (last month it raised the cap to $500,000). mike vernon royal household; are there snakes in gran canaria; shooting in laurel, md yesterday. louisiana ppp loan arrestsanxiety support groups columbia, sc Africa -China Review Africa -China Cooperation and Transformation fidelity express money order refund thamani ya rupia ya mjerumani Official websites use .gov Businesses applying for a PPP loan must provide documentation to confirm that they have previously paid employees the compensation represented in the loan application. An official website of the United States government. Eastern District of Louisiana Report it to the Small Business Administrations with just a few clicks. The Justice Department brought civil claims against the company under both the False Claims Act and Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act. Other government agencies also submit referrals of potential fraud to the office of inspector general, and suspicious activity reports come in through the financial industry by way of the Treasury Department. The number of potentially questionable loans approved through these programs is vast, as will be the task of determining how many of those loans were fraudulent or otherwise improper. It was this difficult road that we had about a week, but our bankers got it done and, and our businesswomen and businessmen stepped up to the plate and took advantage of it, said Sen. John Kennedy, R-La. The scale of lending means the potential amount of Economic Injury Disaster loan fraud is staggering. First Home Bank approved the $8.4 million loan, among the less than 0.1% of Paycheck Protection Program loans this large or larger (the maximum is $10 million). Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justices National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form. The Justice Department has brought criminal charges against at least 209 individuals in 119 cases related to Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) fraud since banks and other lenders began processing loan applications on behalf of the Small Business Administration on April 3, 2020. The cash injection and potentially forgivable loans were . Facebook; Linkedin; louisiana ppp loan arrestsaboriginal handmade jewellery 19 January 2023 / in types of poop poster spencer's / by / in types of poop poster spencer's / by 3 Defendants Arrested For Over $13 Million Fraud Scheme To Obtain Loans Intended To Help Small Businesses During COVID-19 Pandemic Three Family Members Arrested for Misrepresenting Employee Payroll Figures to Receive COVID-19 Loan Funds for Chain of Family-Owned Nail Salons in New York Metropolitan Area and Other Businesses (He also applied for a separate loan just days before being indicted.) Normally, our agents work a contract or procurement fraud case those can take several years to investigate, Grossman said. According to court records, Amir Aqeel and several others in the Houston area allegedly created fake tax and payroll documentation in exchange for large kickbacks for referring others into the scheme that involved 12 corporate entities. Grossman told POGO, we expect a lot more civil enforcement.. Mr. Santemore's pleaded guilty on April 27, 2022, and was sentenced on July 25, 2022 but the terms of his sentence are under seal. GOODWILL INDUSTRIES OF NORTH LOUISIANA INC. In remarks before the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, an influential business lobbying group, last June before the SBA released partial data identifying Paycheck Protection Program recipients of loans above $150,000, then-Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Ethan P. Davis said that with the administrations decision to release that information, some have predicted more qui tams as a result., Davis then said, Let me be clear. He also opened bank accounts and lines of credit at financial institutions and credit card companies in the names of his elderly victims, according to the Justice Department. Aqeel and others in the scheme allegedly used loan funds to pay individuals they claimed were employees but were actually fake employees, according to a court filing. Loan Range No. The CARES Act provided $600 weekly supplemental unemployment benefits for individuals out of work for reasons related to the pandemic. An internal analysis last fall by the Small Business Administration identified over 2 million approved PPP loan guarantees worth some $189 billion that were potentially not in compliance with the law, though it may turn out that many of those loans were not fraudulent. Byron Henderson Assistant United States Attorneys Michael C. McGinnis and Sagar K. Ravi are in charge of the prosecution. These cases further highlight the ways individuals appear to have taken advantage of lax oversight in the program. (WAFB) - The Paycheck Protection Program, known as PPP, provided a lifeline for millions of business owners when the pandemic was at its worst. NGUYEN, VICTORIA HO, and DAT HO are members of a family that owns a chain of over 15 nail salons called Victoria Nails & Spa and other companies (the Victoria Companies) in or around the New York metropolitan area, including the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Long Island. Complaints can also be filed online here. The Department of Justice (DOJ) says as of Aug. 8, more than 5.2 million forgivable loans have been approved, at a total of more than $525 billion. Copyright 2021 WAFB. Lock The cases involve attempts to steal a total of more than $175 million from the program, with actual losses to the federal government totaling more than $70 million, the DOJ reports. Lenders approved that amount for eight people, seven of whom got checks. The DOJ says this ill-gotten money was in many cases used to buy luxury personal items like cars, homes, vacation trips, and jewelry. In the three decades since the laws passage, there have been only six whistleblower settlements involving FIRREA, yielding $19.9 billion in recoveries, but only $9.3 million in rewards to whistleblowers, according to Whistleblower Network News. The Department of Justice says in Feb. 2021, Gray created a scheme to defraud a lender and the United States, through the Small Business Administration, by filing false applications for PPP. They often involve obtaining and then piecing together often-complex financial, payroll, and tax records for individuals and companies, and sifting through other evidence. Rabbitt noted the unparalleled speed with which these cases have been investigated and prosecuted.. In addition to allegedly submitting a fraudulent PPP loan application for a fictious [sic] business in his own name, Saintvil also allegedly stole the identities of eight elderly individualsseven of whom were residents of senior living facilities and one who was related to him, according to a Justice Department press release. The three Economic Injury Disaster loans Greenberg obtained should have triggered red flags galore. This case was brought in New Orleans, Louisiana. The SBA has very broad rules, very, very large leeway on what the lender had to request from the bar to get that guarantee secure, said the SBA Louisiana District Director Michael Ricks. POGOs analysis of the first full years worth of Paycheck Protection Program fraud cases found that in at least: Some of these cases involve multiple defendants. portville central school yearbooks; jennette mccurdy astroseek. The only way you can reverse those things is by understanding the metrics behind it and to have real goals around them.. The CARES Act precluded the agency from exercising one important check on fraud in the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program. Has the curve flatten in my town? He allegedly sought to obtain a total of more than $1.5 million in Paycheck Protection Program loans, at least $937,000 of which he successfully obtained. If the borrower can prove they used the money to pay employees and eligible expenses, they can ask the SBA for loan forgiveness. On June 28, 2020, the day loan applications were filed for the two companies, Greenberg reinstated the companies with Floridas state government since they had been administratively dissolved years prior to the February 2020 eligibility cutoff. PPP Loan Recipient List By State . | Byron.Henderson@la.gov, On Friday, Feb. 12, LDR will begin accepting tax returns through, , the states free, electronic tax filing application; or through commercially available tax filing software. April 15, 2021. An indictment includes text and email messages involving creating tax records for some of the companies. Nick Schwellenbach is a Senior Investigator at POGO. You can search the SBA's entire PPP loan data below. Analyzing that data for red flags is a way to identity subsets of loans and grants that warrant closer scrutiny and to help direct scarce investigative resources. Another large identity theft case led to charges against Jeremie Saintvil of Delray Beach, Florida in March. There were additional steps that could have been undertaken that would not have significantly slowed downin our view in the oversight communitythe delivery of funds to the public, said Michael Horowitz, the Justice Departments inspector general and chair of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, in testimony before Congress on March 25. Greenberg is a friend of Florida Republican Matt Gaetz, and both were identified in a recent New York Times report as having allegedly paid women for sex, as well as potentially a 17-year-old girl. 6 AVG COMPANY SIZE. The inspector general offices workload has increased significantly, Grossman said. (WAFB) - Since the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) launched to help businesses pay their employees to prevent great losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some people have. An estimated 1% of that 2009 stimulus was lost to fraud (some claim the rate is even lower than that). BATON ROUGE, La. While the Small Business Administration could be doing more with data on the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, the agencys independent watchdog has embraced this work. 2020 Louisiana Individual Income Tax returns and payments are due Monday, May 17, 2021. 5 min read. If Congress amends the underutilized Program Fraud Civil Remedies Act, efforts by inspectors general to fight fraud in pandemic related spending would be enhanced, according to Horowitzs testimony. Data analysts at the inspector generals office have been combing through Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster loan data to look for markers of potential fraud, such as repeat loan applicants from the same physical addresses, Grossman told POGO. Sen. John Kennedy says in the rush to get help to people in need as quickly as possible, Congress didnt have time to build many safeguards against fraud into the program. Two of the companies, Symbiont Retailers and Horizon Enterprises, were not in good standing before the Paycheck Protection Program began. In January, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Eastern District of California obtained the first settlement in a Paycheck Protection Program civil enforcement case, against an online retailer called SlideBelts Inc. Additionally, CARES II provides up to $300 in weekly supplemental unemployment benefits. But it may be far greater than the fraud rate seen in the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. One St. Andrews Plaza - New York, NY 10007, Three Family Members Arrested for Misrepresenting Employee Payroll Figures to Receive COVID-19 Loan Funds for Chain of Family-Owned Nail Salons in New York Metropolitan Area and Other Businesses, James Margolin, Nicholas Biase They allegedly exploited a program designed to provide vital funding for small businesses that are legitimately struggling in the midst of the pandemic. The law firm K&L Gates, however, wrote in December that since Congress allowed lenders to rely on borrowers self-certified information, that should decrease the likelihood that otherwise law abiding financial service providers would face government scrutiny for the fraudulent acts of their borrowers., The role of employees who become whistleblowers may emerge as a significant factor in civil Paycheck Protection Program cases. (In late March, the Justice Department told Congress that it had charged $446.8 million in losses related to PPP. Some of these cases may still be under seal and charges are routinely being unsealed.) In other words, lenders and the Small Business Administration did not prevent the alleged fraud in these instances before taxpayer dollars went out the door. Some investigations begin with complaints received through the watchdogs hotline, and others come from referrals by federal agencies or state and local law enforcement. Does something look fishy to you? What happens when the watchdog tasked with overseeing the most powerful law enforcement agency in the country doesnt do its job? (WAFB) - Since the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) launched to help businesses pay their employees to prevent great losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some people have of course tried to exploit the program and defraud the federal government of money. Todays Internet search for PPP Loan Fraud Arrests will certainly produce an unwanted result one that includes the name of their company leading the headlines., IRS-CI Special Agent in Charge Jonathan D. Larsen said: In this difficult time when many Americans are struggling financially, it is repugnant that there are those who would fraudulently take advantage of relief efforts offered. Jean Rabbittand Kevin Aguilarwere charged with bank fraud and conspiracy to engage in monetary transaction charges. 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