Teaming up with your family should be fun and games. Teaming up with your family to defraud the public of pandemic relief?
That's where we don't play.
All in the Family
A father and son were sentenced in a $1.7 million fraud scheme, receiving 4 years and 87 months, respectively. They falsified the number of employees and payroll expenses for several companies owned by the father. They then funneled tens of thousands of dollars to family members.
All is Not Fair in Love and Fraud
A Louisiana couple allegedly teamed up to obtain over $1.1 million
in fraudulent PPP loans, in a case investigated by our PRAC Fraud
Task Force. Related indictments charge that the couple recruited family
and friends by promising "free money" if they provided their personal information. The boyfriend allegedly assisted in recruiting family and
friends in person, via text message, or on Facebook. His girlfriend
prepared over 110 fraudulent applications charging a fee on the front
end while taking a lump sum of $3,500 once the loans were received.
She plead guilty in March of this year and he was indicted 11 days later.
Thou Shalt Not Steal Pandemic Relief from the Public
A Canadian father and son residing in Florida were charged with fraudulently obtaining over $8 million in PPP funds for their
"not-for-profit" ministry. They allegedly claimed to have a payroll for nearly 500 employees, then used the taxpayer dollars to put a down payment on a multi-million dollar residence near Disney World.
Brotherly Love of Fraud
Two brothers were sentenced for their roles in a $1.6 million PPP
fraud scheme in which the elder brother used his position as a tax
preparer to create fake tax documents in support of the fraudulent PPP applications. The scheme included seeking relief funds for two nonexistent companies and inflating the number of employees and payroll expenses
for a third company. The two brothers will each spend over two years
in prison for their efforts.
Keeping up with the Fraudsters
A husband, his wife, and sister-in-law led a family crime ring in which
they fraudulently attempted to obtain $20 million in COVID relief funds. Using stolen, fake, or synthetic identities they submitted over 150 PPP claims during the pandemic.
The couple fled the country to Montenegro and were sentenced
in absentia. They have since been extradited back to the United States.
The third member later followed their lead and was extradited back
to the U.S. to begin serving her sentence.
🍳Kitchen Table Discussion🍳
The PRAC family discusses everything when it comes to
pandemic-related fraud schemes.
That's why we created the Pandemic Analytics Center of Excellence (PACE) to help our partners and law enforcement hold fraudsters accountable.
|
