Most defendants were taken before federal magistrate judges in the afternoon. Captain Skepple, in a brief hearing, was released on $100,000 personal bond pending further proceedings. His lawyer, Jonathan A. Marvinny, had no comment.
The charges unsealed on Wednesday are part of wave of fraud prosecutions around the country related to the trillions of dollars that the government has pumped into programs to bolster the economy and provide assistance to people who had lost their jobs. The New York Times reported in August that the government had charged 1,500 people with defrauding programs that provide pandemic aid, with more than 450 convictions resulting from the cases. The Small Business Administration’s inspector general’s office has agents going through two million potentially fraudulent loan applications.
According to criminal complaints filed by prosecutors, defendants submitted fraudulent applications for loans under the S.B.A.’s Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, which offered loans to help small businesses meet their financial obligations during the pandemic.
The loans ranged from $52,000 to $60,000, and the defendants often submitted applications on behalf of sole proprietorships in their own names and “claimed six-figure gross revenues for businesses that actually earned far less, if they existed at all,” prosecutors said. They listed employees they did not always have, according to authorities.
Many defendants conspired with a man whom prosecutors also charged to submit fraudulent applications and paid him kickbacks after their loans were funded, the government said.
In one case, a former Police Department 911 dispatcher received a $136,500 loan in July 2020 on behalf of an antiques and collectibles business called “Thift’d N Gift’d.” Another defendant who worked at the Administration for Children’s Services applied for a loan in September 2020 for “Neat Streaks Inc.,” which was in the dry cleaners category, prosecutors said. That defendant had already received $49,000 that year from the Small Business Administration in a separate fraudulent filing, according to the complaint.
Captain Skepple, who was charged with one count of wire fraud, had a $50,000 loan approved by the Small Business Administration in July 2020 thanks to a fraudulent application on behalf of a purported printing and graphic design firm, according to a criminal complaint.
from WordPress https://ift.tt/b9aTZQR
via IFTTT