Damian Williams, the USA Lawyer for the Southern District of New York, introduced that AMOS MUNDENDI, a/okay/a “Mos,” a/okay/a “El Ashile Mundi,” was sentenced at this time in Manhattan federal court docket by United States District Decide Paul A. Engelmayer to 42 months in jail for his participation in a scheme to fraudulently receive over $30 million in Authorities-guaranteed loans designed to supply aid to small companies through the COVID-19 pandemic. MUNDENDI is the final of 5 defendants to be sentenced within the case. MACKENZY TOUSSAINT, APOCALYPSE BELLA, a/okay/a “Dias Yumba,” BRANDON JACKSON, and ALVIN MAXWELL have been beforehand sentenced by Decide Engelmayer.
U.S. Lawyer Damian Williams mentioned: “Amid the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic that wreaked havoc on economies worldwide, Amos Mundendi and his co-defendants illegally plundered funds meant to financially assist struggling companies. All defendants on this case will now serve substantial jail time for stealing much-needed aid meant for legitimately deserving firms.”
In accordance with allegations within the Complaints, the Indictments, the Superseding Info, and statements made throughout court docket proceedings:
TOUSSAINT, BELLA, MAXWELL, and MUNDENDI have been concerned in an in depth scheme to organize and submit fraudulent purposes to the Small Enterprise Administration (“SBA”) and to a minimum of one firm which processed mortgage purposes underneath the SBA’s Paycheck Safety Program (“PPP”). Over the course of the scheme, TOUSSAINT, BELLA, MAXWELL, and MUNDENDI tried to fraudulently receive over $30 million in Authorities-guaranteed loans for numerous firms by the PPP, designed to supply monetary aid to qualifying firms through the COVID-19 pandemic. The scheme resulted in over $15 million in precise loss.
The defendants’ scheme included the submission of fraudulent purposes for PPP loans for a number of firms, together with two firms (“Firm‑1” and “Firm-2”) each situated within the Southern District of New York. The mortgage proceeds for Firms-1 and -2 totaled roughly $4 million, and the fraudulent funds have been distributed to a sequence of financial institution accounts situated in the USA and elsewhere, together with financial institution accounts managed by TOUSSAINT and BELLA.
The PPP mortgage purposes for Firm-1 and Firm-2 have been false, containing lies designed to maximise proceeds to the fraud scheme. Particularly, purposes for each Firm-1 and Firm-2 contained materials variations from mortgage purposes submitted for each firms underneath the Financial Damage Catastrophe Mortgage (“EIDL”) program simply months earlier. For example, the PPP mortgage utility for Firm-1 — which was submitted on June 30, 2020 — represented that Firm-1 had over 100 workers. Nonetheless, an earlier EIDL mortgage utility for Firm-1 dated on or about March 30, 2020, represented that Firm-1 had solely 4 workers.
TOUSSAINT, BELLA, and MUNDENDI devised and executed the fraud scheme by conspiring with people who owned, operated, or in any other case have been affiliated with companies reminiscent of Firm-1 and Firm-2. MAXWELL was one such particular person — a business-owner who participated within the scheme to fraudulently receive over $1.6 million for his personal enterprise.
As well as, TOUSSAINT and JACKSON engaged in a separate scheme to submit fraudulent EIDL purposes, usually by using artificial identities (i.e., a pretend title utilized in mixture with true private figuring out info of one other particular person). TOUSSAINT and JACKSON used Social Safety Numbers belonging to minors as a part of the artificial identities created to be used within the fraud scheme. At the least roughly $1.7 million in EIDL mortgage funds have been disbursed on account of TOUSSAINT’s and JACKON’s EIDL mortgage fraud scheme.
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Along with the jail sentence, MUNDENDI, 33, of Irving, Texas, was ordered to pay $9,315,418.00 in restitution.
On October 27, 2022, BELLA, 48, of Clackamas, Oregon, was sentenced to 40 months in jail and ordered to pay $4,088,084.42 in restitution.
On November 10, 2022, TOUSSAINT, 40, of Irving, Texas, was sentenced to 90 months in jail and ordered to pay $12,402,676.92 in restitution.
On December 6, 2022, MAXWELL, 46, of Lancaster, Texas, was sentenced to 18 months in jail and ordered to pay $1,696,534.63 in restitution.
On February 3, 2023, JACKSON, 35, of Farmer’s Department, Texas, was sentenced to 33 months in jail and ordered to pay $1,772,453.00 in restitution.
Mr. Williams praised the excellent work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Small Enterprise Administration’s Workplace of the Inspector Basic, and the Inside Income Service, Felony Investigation.
The case is being dealt with by the Workplace’s Advanced Frauds and Cybercrime Unit. Assistant U.S. Lawyer Dina McLeod is answerable for the prosecution.