Reports

Five Rio Grande Valley residents have been indicted for wire fraud in a scheme involving the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program

Ten individuals face federal charges stemming from a fraud and money laundering operation that targeted government loan programs offered by the U.S. Small Business Administration, including the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program and Paycheck Protection Program. In addition, two of the defendants were charged with laundering the proceeds of a fraudulent unemployment insurance scheme.

Earlier today, in federal court in Central Islip, Niall Alli was sentenced by United States District Judge Gary R. Brown to 48 months in prison, in connection with a $1.7 million disaster relief fraud and wire fraud perpetrated during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of the sentence, Alli was also ordered to pay $1.7 million in restitution to the Small Business Administration and approximately $135,000 in forfeiture consisting of assets seized from corporate bank accounts and Ethereum from a corporate Coinbase wallet.

Greenbelt, Maryland – Lawrence Nathanial Harris, 33, of Temple Hills Maryland, pled guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, in connection with submitting fraudulent CARES Act unemployment insurance (UI) claims. Additionally, in a separate case, he pled guilty to possession of a machine gun, possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance, and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug-trafficking offense.

Salimot Akande, Garey Henderson, and Jacqueline Rollizo were arraigned today on federal fraud and money laundering charges after they allegedly defrauded COVID-19 pandemic relief programs on multiple occasions and then laundered nearly $2 million in proceeds.

A San Bernardino County man was arrested today on a federal criminal complaint alleging that he fraudulently obtained more than $800,000 in taxpayer funded COVID-19 relief funds by concealing his recent federal mail fraud conviction.