In a federal lawsuit that was unsealed on Wednesday, 19 people, including 17 public officials from New York City and the state of New York, were accused of making false claims for funding meant to support small companies battling the coronavirus pandemic.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan claimed that the defendants, who included staff members of New York City’s police, corrections, and public school systems, claimed ownership of companies on their applications for money from the Small Business Administration’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan program and Paycheck Protection Program that, in some cases, did not exist.
Prosecutors claim that the defendants stole more than $1.5 million from the SBA and financial firms that provided loans with SBA guarantees.
Moore expressed his happiness that perhaps one individual could make a difference in response to the news that SoFi had removed the advertisement.
An advertisement like that should never be permitted to air anywhere for any reason.
According to the complaint, one defendant, a paraprofessional employed by a school, stated on her loan application that she was the owner of a hair and nail business with 45 workers and $500,000 in yearly sales.
According to bank records, the defendant’s only significant source of income was the wage she received from the Department of Education, according to the investigators.
According to the complaint, the paraprofessional spent the $150,000 from the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program on a trip to Las Vegas and shopping at Louis Vuitton, Macy’s, and other stores.
“It is disrespectful to plan to steal government monies meant to assist small companies in weathering a national calamity,” the U.S. In a news release, attorney Damian Williams stated.
“And these people ought to have known better, being employed by the government. This Office will keep pursuing those who commit fraud to enrich themselves at the expense of the public.
Nine of the defendants were also accused of conspiring to commit wire fraud and the wire fraud accusation.
A defendant was charged with severe identity theft. Their lawyers’ profiles weren’t immediately available.
Although millions of legitimate firms profited from the schemes, auditors claim that the haste with which the federal emergency credit programs were established in the early months of the COVID-19 epidemic in 2020 left them open to fraud.
“There’s no denying they’ve made a good impression. However, the management of these initiatives requires significant improvement, according to the U.S. Gene L. Dodaro, the comptroller general, stated last year.
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