Reports

CINCINNATI – A West Chester couple pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court today to committing wire fraud to obtain pandemic relief funds. The husband and wife were owners or associates of multiple transportation firms.

DENVER – The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado announces that William Chadwick, 62, of Akron, Colorado, pleaded guilty yesterday to one count of Money Laundering and agreed to repay the fraudulent proceeds he laundered from COVID-19 relief programs.

This PRAC fraud prevention alert focused on some of the largest pandemic relief programs: the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan (COVID-19 EIDL) program and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), and the Department of Labor’s (DOL) pandemic-related Unemployment Insurance (UI) programs. In 2023, the SBA Office of Inspector General (OIG) and the DOL OIG estimated that the total amount of fraud and improper payments for these programs is nearly $400 billion. In this alert, the PRAC estimates the amount of potential fraud across these programs stemming from...

NEW ORLEANS – Acting U.S. Attorney Michael M. Simpson announced that NIPUN DESAI (“DESAI”), formerly of Hammond, La., but now a California resident, age 56, was sentenced to 12 months plus one day by U.S. District Judge Wendy B. Vitter for making false statements related to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act).

A New Jersey man was sentenced to 20 months in prison for fraudulently obtaining approximately $149,900 in federal Economic Injury Disaster Loans (“EIDL”) loans.

Three individuals were sentenced yesterday for their participation in a scheme to defraud the Georgia Department of Labor (GaDOL), out of tens of millions of dollars in benefits meant to assist unemployed individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic.