Reports

Tornado Bus Company, Inc. and El Expreso Group, LLC, two affiliated Dallas-based bus companies that operate numerous international bus routes between the United States and Mexico, agreed to pay $3.9 million to resolve allegations that the companies violated the False Claims Act by applying for and receiving loans that they were not eligible for in the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).

Dallas-based Integrative Emergency Services Physician Group, PA, along with its affiliated management service organization Integrative Emergency Services, LLC, agreed to pay $3.5 million to resolve allegations that the companies violated the False Claims Act by applying for and receiving loans that they were not eligible for in the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).

BOSTON – A former employee of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) was sentenced today in federal court in Boston for fraudulently obtaining over $40,000 in pandemic unemployment assistance (PUA) benefits.

Norman Dixson, a convicted drug dealer who fraudulently obtained federal pandemic relief money to fund his lifestyle, was sentenced to two years in federal prison for promoting dogfighting.

Seattle – The final defendant of a six-defendant fraud scheme that submitted fraudulent applications seeking more than $6.8 million in COVID benefits was convicted late yesterday in U.S. District Court in Seattle, announced First Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Neil Floyd.

COLUMBUS, Ga. – Four Georgia men who conspired to defraud taxpayers by unlawfully claiming millions in pandemic relief funds designed to help small businesses and workers have been sentenced to prison following a National Fraud Enforcement Division investigation that stemmed from Operation Sweet Silence, a major organized crime takedown in Columbus.

Robert A. Terrell, 51, of Washington, D.C., and Bowie, Maryland, pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court to falsifying documents to secure $1.35 million in COVID-19 relief funds for his business, announced U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro.

HONOLULU – United States Attorney Ken Sorenson announced that Phoebe Trinh, also known as Phuong Trinh Ngoc Vo, 33, of Kapolei, Hawaii, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Shanlyn A.S. Park to 24 months in prison followed by 6 months of supervised release for aggravated identity theft.

A South Carolina corporation entered into a settlement agreement with the United States resolving allegations that the company violated the False Claims Act by applying for and receiving a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan for which the company was not eligible.