Former Stockton Mayor Anthony Silva faces federal bank fraud and aggravated identity theft charges after prosecutors said he lied to obtain and later forgive a pandemic relief loan meant for struggling small businesses.
The charges, filed Friday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, stem from a $17,000 Paycheck Protection Program loan, or PPP loan, Silva received for his Stockton business, Indoor Adventures LLC, an indoor recreational facility for families. The business is now permanently closed, and its social media accounts have been taken down.
Prosecutors say Silva falsely claimed another person owned 85% of the company to hide his own role as majority owner, allowing him to circumvent federal rules barring business owners with recent felony convictions from seeking PPP loans.
Silva, 50, served one term as Stockton’s mayor from 2013 to 2017, a tenure marked by controversy and conflict with other city officials. He was convicted of a felony in 2019 on a conflict-of-interest charge stemming from a three-year financial malfeasance case during his mayoral tenure. The conviction was later reduced to a misdemeanor and expunged in 2022.
Court records allege Silva used the unidentified associate’s name on a PPP loan application and submitted false information about the business. A federally insured bank approved the loan in April 2020, and Silva later applied for loan forgiveness, which wiped out the debt. Prosecutors say the scheme ran from April 2020 through September 2021.
The Paycheck Protection Program was created under the 2020 Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act to help small businesses retain employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. Loans, fully guaranteed by the U.S. Small Business Administration, could be forgiven if spent on payroll, rent or other eligible expenses. Nationally, the program loaned $793 billion to 11.5 million small businesses before ending in 2021. --->READ MORE HERE
Three Columbus-area women, including a mother and daughter, are among 15 people who have been indicted by a grand jury in connection with a sprawling COVID-19 unemployment assistance scheme that prosecutors say resulted in the fraudulent release of more than $7 million in benefit payments.
Markeya Smith, 28; her mother, Brandy Smith, 45, both of Columbus; and Shirkara Reggins Cochran, 42, of Canal Winchester, face a slew of charges in connection with the scheme, including engaging in corrupt activity, money laundering, theft, and telecommunications fraud, according to Franklin County Common Pleas Court filings.
The grand jury also indicted 12 other co-conspirators in connection with the scheme.
According to the Ohio Office of the Inspector General, the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services hired outside contractors to help process claims and release money for the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program, which was "inundated" with unemployment compensation claims during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In October 2022, ODJFS launched an investigation and discovered what it called suspicious activity concerning Markeya Smith, who worked for Randstad as a contractor and was assigned to the Ohio PUA program. ODJFS accused Markeya Smith of improperly clearing application issues and fraudulently inflating the incomes of PUA applicants so they could receive larger weekly payouts, according to the state Inspector General's office. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to relevant/related stories and resources:
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