 |
| AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, File |
Federal authorities announced charges Wednesday against New York City workers they say conspired in an extensive fraud operation involving dozens of bogus pandemic loan applications.
Fifteen city workers, including seven employees at the New York Police Department, face charges, along with one retired city employee and an employee at a city nonprofit organization.
They stole more than $1.5 million combined, prosecutors said.
“These are individuals who held positions of trust and had strong, stable jobs while so many people struggled during the pandemic,” said Thomas M. Fattorusso, special agent in charge of the New York field office for IRS’s criminal investigations.
Eight of the public workers and the nonprofit employee were charged with a joint conspiracy of working on bogus loans together. The others were charged separately as submitting their own fraudulent loan applications.
According to a criminal complaint filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan, the employees either invented or aggrandized businesses, then filed for loans Congress made available to small businesses during the early days of the pandemic.
Authorities said Rodney Smith ran the large conspiracy operation. They traced 95 applications back to a single IP address which they tied to Mr. Smith. --->READ MORE HERE
Seventeen New York City municipal workers – including seven from the NYPD and one MTA staffer – were busted in separate COVID-19 relief schemes that netted them over $1.5 million in federal funds, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Some of the conspirators allegedly spent the fraudulently obtained cash to gamble or on stocks, furniture and electronics, according to criminal complaints unsealed in Manhattan federal court.
The scams centered on the oft-abused US Small Business Administration’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan program meant to help those struggling during the pandemic.
In the main alleged scheme, ringleader Rodney Smith, 54, is accused of conspiring to file fraudulent applications — many claiming to be on behalf of hair and nail salons — through the SBA program in 2020. The different applications claimed similar numbers of employees and revenues, prosecutors said.
The eight applicants now charged include five employees of the NYPD, an MTA worker, a staffer with the city’s Human Resources Administration and one person who worked for a Big Apple-based nonprofit.
They netted between $52,000 and $60,000 a pop — and then paid Smith and others thousands in kickbacks, a complaint alleges. In total, Smith is suspected of being involved in 95 fraudulent applications, which investigators linked to him through one IP address tied to his Brooklyn home. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to relevant/related stories and resources:
NY nursing home owners stole $18M, leaving residents in ‘inhumane’ conditions: suit
What I Learned After Covid-Crazed Hospital Rules Drove Me To Try A Home Birth
USA TODAY: Coronavirus Updates
WSJ: Coronavirus Live Updates
YAHOO NEWS: Coronavirus Live Updates
NEW YORK POST: Coronavirus The Latest
If you like what you see, please "Like" and/or Follow us on FACEBOOK here, GETTR here, and TWITTER here.
No comments:
Post a Comment