Texas –
Lee Price III, a man from Houston, Texas, United States was sentenced to 9 years in prison. He used the COVID-19 relief funds to buy luxury items such as Rolex watches to Lamborghini Urus cars.
Quoted by the Associated Press, Thursday (12/2/2021) Lee Price uses a salary protection program for employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. So through a government program, banks will provide loans at low interest rates during COVID-19, this program is intended for companies that have been suffocated by COVID-19.
Lee Price III claims that three of his companies, Price Enterprises Holdings, Price Logistic Services, and 713 Construction, have large salaries that need to be covered using emergency funds from the Payroll Protection Program. He asked for a loan of $ 2.6 million or equivalent to Rp. 22.8 billion.
But not to facilitate finances, Price instead bought a Lamborghini Urus for US$ 233,000 or equivalent to Rp. 3.3 billion, and a Ford F-350 for US$ 85,000 or Rp. 1.2 billion.
Not only that, Price bought a Rolex for $14,000 and spent thousands of dollars on nightclubs and striptease clubs in Houston. Price also used the funds to pay off his property installments.
After further investigation, the company data he applied for the loan turned out to be fictitious. In one loan application, Price has 50 employees and an average monthly salary of $375,000. Authorities said the company Price filed for had no employees, and had never hired anyone.
The Justice Department, along with law enforcement partners, were still able to secure more than $700,000 of funds that Price fraudulently obtained.
Price was arrested in August last year, pleading guilty to fraud and money laundering charges in September. Price was sentenced to 110 months in prison.
“Price hopes that others will learn from his case. He received a sentence of 110 months to reflect, repent, and rebuild his wrong life,” said Tom Berg, Price’s attorney, quoted by the Washington Post.
But on his criminal record, Price received felony convictions in 2010 for forgery and in 2011 for robbery.
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