NEW YORK – Seventeen state and New York City employees are accused of obtaining alleged pandemic relief loans through a fraud scheme, federal officials said.
According to the complaint, cited by U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams, during the summer of 2020, some of the defendants conspired to submit false loan applications to the SBA’s EIDL program.
Bogus loan applications were allegedly filed in their name, but they made false claims about gross income and number of employees, with many of the applications claiming that the accused persons ran nail and nail salons.
In addition, other defendants also filed false applications at various times in 2020 on their own behalf, according to prosecutors.
In these cases the fraudulent claims would have exacted six-figure revenues for companies that didn’t exist and, if they did exist, made far less money.
Many of these apps also claimed employees they didn’t actually have.
According to prosecutors, the defendants spent the money they received through these loans on personal expenses, including casinos, online gambling, personal stock investments, home furnishings, electronics and luxury clothing.
In all, 19 people are accused of this type of fraud, prosecutors said. They included 17 government employees, including people who worked for the NYPD, the New York City Department of Education, the New York City Department of Prisons, the New York City Department of Transportation, and the US Civil Service Administration. for childhood. Individuals who work for the MTA, the city’s Human Resources Administration, and a city non-profit organization were also reported.
Information from the defendants’ lawyers was not immediately available.
