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Hamed pleaded guilty to bank fraud, which carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 30 years.
A Woodbridge man pled guilty Friday to a scheme to obtain over $2 million in funds intended for pandemic relief.
Yasir G. Hamed, 60, of Woodbridge, pleaded guilty to offenses stemming from a scheme to defraud a COVID-19 pandemic relief program of more than $2.3 million.
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, passed in the very early days of the pandemic, provided emergency financial assistance to Americans suffering the economic effects caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Officials said one source of relief provided by the CARES Act was the authorization of forgivable loans to small businesses for job retention and certain other expenses through the Paycheck Protection Program. The PPP was overseen by the U.S. Small Business Administration, and individual PPP loans were issued by private lenders, which received and processed PPP applications and supporting documentation, and then made loans using the lenders’ own funds, which were guaranteed by the SBA.
Prosecutors said Hamed, an accountant, had relationships with several New Haven-based businesses, including Access Consulting and Professional Services Inc.; Connecticut Medical Transportation Inc.; Arabic Language Learning Program Inc.; Institute for Global Educational Exchange Inc.; Access Medical Transport Inc.; Ikea Car & Limo Inc.; Center of the World Tours, North America LLC.; and Sudanese American Friendship Association Inc. Starting in June 2020 and for the next 13 months, Hamed submitted fraudulent PPP loan applications on behalf of these companies, overstating employee numbers and average monthly payroll, and making other fraudulent representations. As part of the applications, he submitted false tax filings that had never been filed with the IRS.
In addition, prosecutors said Hamed also submitted PPP loan applications on behalf of companies owned by his clients. At one point, Hamed convinced the owner of a business, which he knew was not active and had no employees, to seek PPP funding. Hamed prepared the paperwork for the PPP application and then took a significant portion of the loan proceeds. --->READ MORE HERE
A former Howell man who admitted to bilking the government out of $3.75 million in funds set up to aid small businesses struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic has been sentenced to 16 years in prison.
Kevin Aguilar, 54, was sentenced April 23 by U.S. District Judge Michael A. Shipp in federal court in Trenton after pleading guilty in October to all 15 counts of an indictment: one count of conspiracy to engage in bank fraud, seven counts of bank fraud, one count of conspiracy to engage in wire fraud, three counts of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy involving an unlawful transaction, one count of making an unlawful transaction and one count of aggravated identity theft.
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Economic Injury Disaster Loan and the Payroll Protection programs were set up to hand out loans to distressed small businesses for job retention, rent and other expenses. The short-term, low-interest loans were forgivable if businesses spent a certain percentage on payroll and spent the money on all the targeted expenses within a specific period.
Between April 2020 and May 2021, Aguilar conspired to submit seven bogus payroll protection applications and three fraudulent disaster loan applications on behalf of four businesses: Showtime Trucking, Showtime TTR XPO, TTS Terminal Corp. and American Consolidated Freightways Corp. He and his co-defendant, Jean E. Rabbitt, whom he lived with, received $3.3 million from the payroll protection fund and $450,000 from the disaster loan program, authorities said. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to relevant/related stories and resources:
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