{"id":48669,"date":"2021-12-15T13:04:56","date_gmt":"2021-12-15T21:04:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=48669"},"modified":"2021-12-15T13:04:56","modified_gmt":"2021-12-15T21:04:56","slug":"four-charged-in-35-million-covid-19-relief-fraud-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=48669","title":{"rendered":"Four Charged in $35 Million COVID-19 Relief Fraud Scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A federal grand jury in Houston returned a superseding indictment, which was unsealed today, charging four additional individuals for fraudulently<\/span> obtaining and laundering millions of dollars in forgivable Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration (SBA) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"In total, 15 individuals across two states have now been charged in the conspiracy.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to court documents, Hamza Abbas, 29, Khalid Abbas, 55, Abdul Fatani, 55, all of Richmond, Texas; and Syed Ali, 53, of Sugar Land, Texas, conspired with others to submit more than 80 false and fraudulent PPP loan applications by falsifying the number of employees and the average monthly payroll expenses of the applicant businesses. <\/span><\/p>\n

In total, the defendants sought over $35 million in PPP loan funds and obtained approximately $18 million in PPP loan proceeds.<\/span><\/p>\n

The superseding indictment further alleges that the defendants laundered a portion of the fraudulent loan proceeds by writing checks from companies that received PPP loans to fake employees. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Those that received checks included some of the defendants and their relatives, according to the charges. <\/span><\/p>\n

The fake paychecks were then allegedly cashed at Fascare International Inc. dba Almeda Discount Store \u2013 a check-cashing company. <\/span><\/p>\n

The superseding indictment alleges that over 1,100 fake paychecks, totaling more than $3 million in fraudulent PPP loan proceeds were cashed at Almeda.<\/span><\/p>\n

Amir Aqeel, 53, of Houston, Texas; Siddiq Azeemuddin, 42, of Naperville, Illinois; Rifat Bajwa, 53, of Richmond, Texas; Pardeep Basra, 52, of Houston, Texas; Mayer Misak, 41, of Cypress, Texas; Mauricio Navia, 42, of Katy, Texas; and Richard Reuth, 58, of Spring, Texas, were previously\u00a0indicted<\/a>\u00a0for their involvement in the fraudulent loan scheme. <\/span><\/p>\n

Aqeel, Bajwa, Basra, Misak, and Navia are also named defendants in the superseding indictment.<\/span><\/p>\n

Azeemuddin and Reuth pleaded guilty for their involvement in the scheme on Oct. 8 and 9, respectively. Four other individuals \u2013 Abdul Farahshah, 70, Jesus Acosta Perez, 31, and Bijan Rajabi, 68, all of Houston, Texas; and Raheel Malik, 41, of Sugar Land, Texas \u2013 have also pleaded guilty for their involvement in the scheme. <\/span><\/p>\n

Malik pleaded guilty to a one-count information charging him with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering on Oct. 8. <\/span><\/p>\n

Farahshah, Perez, and Rajabi each pleaded guilty to a one-count information charging them with conspiracy to commit wire fraud on Nov. 30.<\/span><\/p>\n

The defendants in the superseding indictment are all charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud. <\/span><\/p>\n

Aqeel, Khalid Abbas, Ali, and Fatani are also charged with money laundering. Aqeel is also charged with aggravated identity theft and is alleged to have submitted PPP loan applications by stealing the identities of uninvolved parties. <\/span><\/p>\n

The defendants are scheduled for their initial court appearance tomorrow before U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew M. Edison of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. <\/span><\/p>\n

If convicted, the defendants face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison per count of wire fraud and 10 years in prison per count of money laundering. <\/span><\/p>\n

If convicted of aggravated identity theft, Aqeel faces a mandatory minimum sentence of two years in addition to the sentence imposed for the other offenses.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A federal grand jury in Houston returned a superseding indictment, which was unsealed today, charging four additional individuals for fraudulently obtaining and laundering millions of dollars in forgivable Paycheck Protection Program (PPP)…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39380,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nFour Charged in $35 Million COVID-19 Relief Fraud Scheme<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A federal grand jury in Houston returned a superseding indictment, which was unsealed today, charging four additional individuals for fraudulently\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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