LOS ANGELES – An Orange County man was sentenced at the moment to 54 months in federal jail for fraudulently acquiring $5 million in COVID-relief loans for his sham companies, then used the cash on himself, together with buying Ferrari, Bentley and Lamborghini automobiles.
Mustafa Qadiri, 42, of Irvine, was sentenced by United States District Decide Josephine L. Staton, who additionally fined him $20,000 and ordered him to pay $2,861,050 in restitution.
Qadiri pleaded responsible in July 2021 to at least one depend of financial institution fraud, one depend of aggravated id theft, and one depend of cash laundering.
In accordance with court docket paperwork, Qadiri claimed to have operated 4 Newport Seashore-based firms, none of which have been in operation: All American Lending Inc., All American Capital Holdings Inc., RadMediaLab Inc., and Advert Blot Inc.
In Could and June of 2020, Qadiri submitted false and fraudulent Paycheck Safety Program (PPP) mortgage purposes to a few banks on behalf of these firms. The false data Qadiri submitted included the variety of workers to whom the businesses paid wages, altered checking account information with inflated balances, and fictitious quarterly federal tax return types. Qadiri additionally used another person’s title, Social Safety quantity and signature to fraudulently apply for one of many loans.
PPP loans have been supposed by Congress to offered monetary assist to companies struggling beneath the load of the COVID-19 pandemic’s financial fallout.
Counting on this false data, the banks funded the PPP mortgage purposes and transferred roughly $5 million to accounts Qadiri managed. Qadiri used the fraudulently obtained PPP mortgage proceeds for his personal private profit, together with for bills prohibited beneath the necessities of the PPP program, corresponding to the acquisition of luxurious autos, lavish holidays, and the fee of his private bills.
Federal brokers seized the Ferrari, Bentley and Lamborghini automobiles that Qadiri bought with the fraudulently obtained PPP loans, together with $2 million in ill-gotten positive aspects from his checking account.
Homeland Safety Investigations, the Small Enterprise Administration Workplace of Inspector Basic, the FBI and IRS Felony Investigation investigated this matter as a part of the El Camino Actual Monetary Crimes Process Power.
Assistant United States Legal professional Jennifer L. Waier of the Santa Ana Department Workplace prosecuted this case.
Anybody with details about allegations of tried fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Division of Justice’s Nationwide Middle for Catastrophe Fraud Hotline at (866) 720-5721 or through the NCDF Net Grievance Type at: https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.