A luxurious Lamborghini car, a glamorous Rolex watch and a mortgage payment is part of what 30-year-old Lee Price III spent on the amount received for covid-19 loan assistance in Houston, Texas, for what it was sentenced in the United States to nine years in prison for the corresponding crimes on these facts.
As revealed CNN, the man was taken to prison on charges of electronic fraud, as well as money laundering, this after submitting loan applications from the Pay Check Protection Program (PPP), which were false, to two different lenders on behalf of three different companies, according to the Justice Department.
The institution reported that Price pleaded guilty to the charges in September, revealing that through loan applications he tried to obtain more than 2.6 million dollars, receiving about 1.6 million dollars in PPP loan funds.
The loans were requested and received one month apart, spending the funds on the same date that he received the total. The fraud has started to garner media attention Americans, revealing that this is not the first time these events have occurred.
In his first request, according to court documents, Price made it for 752 thousand 452 dollars (more than 16 million pesos) for a construction company, which was in the name of an Ohio resident who previously died as of the date of submission of the application.
The same documentation ensures that in that process, the man said that the firm had 30 employees, which contemplated a monthly payroll of 300 thousand 981 dollars on average (higher than 6 million pesos), although there were not even the number of workers and contemplated payments.
The second application process revealed, Price lied about his criminal status, because he denied having any pending or compliant legal situation, but in reality the man was facing charges for altering a government record in Harris County, Texas.
That same request was approved, signing the documents electronically in June of last year. The financial records revealed that after three days about 14 thousand 343 dollars (about 304 thousand pesos) were spent in buying a Rolex watch and the day after a transaction of 233 thousand 337 dollars (almost 5 million pesos) was made for the possession of a Lamborghini Urus 2019, according to the documents.
So far, the authorities they confiscated about 700 thousand dollars (almost 15 million pesos) that the man managed to obtain fraudulently, he must also cease to have in his possession the Lamborghini, the Ford F-350 and the Rolex watch.
“Mr. Price acknowledges that the harsh sentence imposed today by Judge Gilmore was caused by both your fraudulent conduct in this PPP loan case as for the rather irregular criminal record that he brought to the table (…) The Court determined that he fully accepted his responsibility by pleading unconditionally guilty of the accusation, “the man’s lawyer, Tom Berg, said in a statement to CNN.
The same legal representative said that Price “he hopes others will learn from his calculations that there is no easy money“, also ensuring that” he has the balance of the 110-month sentence to reflect, repent and rebuild his wasted life. “
Price is not the first case of PPP loan fraud in the United States. The US chain reveals that there are more than 500 million dollars linked to hoaxes, with 474 people accused of crimes with the theft of aid.
These types of loans arose in the United States with the intention of keeping small companies afloat during the covid-19 pandemic, especially those that had to pause their functions due to the risk of contagion of coronavirus.
OMZI
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