A Morrison man was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison for wire fraud and money laundering after he got two Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans during the COVID-19 pandemic. Richard Nieto, 39, applied for three fraudulent PPP loan applications, seeking a total of $1,117,903.56.
Two of his three loan applications went through, totaling $913,551.88, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Colorado (USACO). Nieto was ordered to pay $962,438.85 in restitution.
While he committed to using the PPP loans on business expenses, Nieto put it toward personal expenditures and investments, the USACO said. He paid a home mortgage, purchased bitcoin, contributed to an investment account, bought gold and silver coins and invested in a friend's startup business.
“This is another case of someone using for personal gain a program meant to help people suffering during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Acting United States Attorney J. Bishop Grewell said. “I want the public to know that we are aggressively prosecuting people who stole from this relief program.”
Prior to any payments on the loans, Nieto requested loan forgiveness, according to the USACO. He created 87 fake payroll checks and paystubs, related to a specific pay period and employee. Nieto said his companies withheld taxes so they would qualify for loan forgiveness. And one of his PPP loans was fully forgiven. --->READ MORE HERE
A 30-year-old Jacksonville woman pleaded guilty on Tuesday to several charges including wire fraud involving the COVID-19 Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), according to the Department of Justice.
According to the DOJ, Carnisha Maurica Rogers pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of false representation of a Social Security number (SSN) involving a line of credit scheme, and one count of wire fraud involving COVID relief fraud through the PPP.
According to court documents, Rogers and her co-conspirators fraudulently obtained other people’s Social Security numbers.
DOJ said from November 2017 through September 2019, Rogers and others recruited people to get lines of credit at various businesses using the SSNs. After fraudulently obtaining the lines of credit, they obtained jewelry and other merchandise.
Rogers and her co-conspirators then resold some of the merchandise and lines of credit on social media platforms, officials said.
In May 2021, Rogers submitted a PPP loan application to a lender authorized by the Small Business Administration (SBA) to lend funds for approved PPP loan applications. But the DOJ said that Rogers’ application “falsely claimed” that she operated her own business. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to relevant/related stories and resources:
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