DOJ Secures Guilty Plea in $24 Million COVID-Relief Fraud Scheme

The Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced today that a Texas man has pleaded guilty to orchestrating a fraudulent scheme to obtain approximately $24.8 million in forgivable Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) loans and laundering the proceeds.  According to DOJ, the Defendant admitted that he submitted 15 fraudulent applications to eight different lenders seeking to secure PPP loans.  On these loan applications, the Defendant falsely claimed that his businesses had numerous employees and hundreds of thousands of dollars in payroll expenses.  The Defendant admitted that, through these false claims, he received over $17 million in PPP loan funds which he used for his own personal benefit, including to purchase multiple homes and a fleet of luxury cars.

Read the DOJ press release here.

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