It’s
just a matter of time before there’s a knock at the door.
There
may still be time to make amends.
BEMA
International
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It's
March Madness, where 68 teams battle for their shot at achieving
that one shining moment.
While we can't tell you which collegiate team will
win the championship ring, we can show you quite a few organized
crime rings that lost when it came to teaming up to steal
pandemic relief.
Below are some notable cases where wrongdoers,
much like brackets, were busted.
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A #11
seed has never won it all
And it probably won't happen here either, where 11 members of a
multi-state fraud team were indicted for their alleged
roles in a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) fraud scheme. As
part of their gameplan, one
of the team leaders allegedly submitted the PPP loan applications
on
behalf of each of the co-conspirators and once the loans were
funded,
the leader would receive a kickback for up to $5,000.
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Unearned
If you're lucky enough to win it all, you'll have
earned a championship ring. Unfortunately, this is a case of a
husband and wife who did not earn their bling.
The duo, who pleaded guilty, were part of a
14-person fraud group charged with theft of over $5 million in
California state unemployment (UI) benefits. The
husband not only collected the benefits but paid out $244,050 to
the other members and sent another $200,000+ to associates in
Romania. Finally, the couple used over $100,000 in
stolen funds on luxury jewelry and a BMW.
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Cheating
the game
The glass slipper broke for this team of fraudsters.
Three individuals were sentenced for their roles in fraudulently
obtaining nearly $3.5 million in PPP
relief funds. The trio, as part of a larger fraud
ring, worked with co-conspirators to falsify loan applications to
financial institutions to collect the funds. One of the individuals was
convicted in November 2023 and was found to have used
the stolen funds for purchasing jewelry and paying off credit
card bills for herself and family members.
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First
team All-Fraud
In a massive fraud case, a defendant pleaded guilty
to an $18
million PPP and COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan
(EIDL) fraud scheme. He and multiple co-conspirators prepared
fraudulent loan applications in exchange for kickbacks of 20-30%
of the loan amount. He also received nearly $1 million
in PPP/EIDL funds for businesses he controlled – none
of the businesses actually existed. He used his stolen funds for
luxury
trips to Dubai and Egypt and bought a property in Egypt to open a
beachfront restaurant.
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Rounding
out the fraud starting 5
A fraud ringleader
was sentenced to 5 years in prison for leading her
five co-defendants and enlisting the help of over 50 associates
in a pandemic-related fraud scheme. She personally submitted 125 fraudulent
applications
for Emergency Rental Assistance, PPP, EIDL, and UI benefits
programs, seeking more than $3.3 million. Her team posed as
fake tenants, landlords, and small business owners in need of
assistance to achieve the scheme. She received over $1.2 million
in kickback payments for her efforts and used a portion of the
money on a Lexus, Range Rover, cosmetic surgery, and jewelry. The
group she led attempted to steal nearly $6.8 million in pandemic
relief.
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Don't
leave it to the professionals
A former professional
basketball player was indicted for allegedly
falsifying annual revenues for two LLC's in order to obtain over
$140,000 in PPP
and EIDL relief. He was also charged with falsely stating he was
the sole proprietor of a janitorial service bearing his name in
order to receive
another $20,000 in PPP loans.
His indictment came just months after his
girlfriend, a reality star on
"Basketball Wives LA," was sentenced to four years
for her own transgressions, including PPP and EIDL fraud of
nearly $200,000. She
used the money to help fund her lavish lifestyle.
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 Our X's and O's
The
cases above are just a handful of the many examples
of organized groups of criminals stealing pandemic relief money
from the public. To combat this amount of fraud, we need a team
of
all-stars to fight back.
The PRAC Fraud Task Force
and our Pandemic Analytics
Center of Excellence use advanced analytic tools to
identify potential fraud.
We are
part of an elite DOJ COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force
that works together worldwide to bring pandemic fraudsters
to justice. Collectively this team has seized over $1.4 billion
in
stolen relief funds.
Crime cannot win.
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Disclaimer: An indictment is a formal
accusation of a serious crime. However, all defendants are
presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt
in a court of law.
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The Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC) is
a committee of the
Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and
Efficiency (CIGIE).
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bEMA International
Washington, D.C.
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Cooperation, Collaboration,
Communication, Coordination, Community engagement, and Partnering (C5&P)
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A 501 (c) 3 organization
"It is my belief that
the best results in business come from a creative process, from the ability
to see things differently from everyone else, and from finding answers to
problems that are not bound by the phrase 'we have always done it this
way.' " Wayne Rogers
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