{"id":49244,"date":"2022-03-29T12:41:37","date_gmt":"2022-03-29T19:41:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=49244"},"modified":"2022-03-29T12:41:37","modified_gmt":"2022-03-29T19:41:37","slug":"feds-california-man-convicted-of-27-million-paycheck-protection-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=49244","title":{"rendered":"Feds: California Man Convicted of $27 Million Paycheck Protection Fraud"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"yiv4633112398MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\">WASHINGTON\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv4633112398MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-6759 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Department-of-Justice-300x197.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"197\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Department-of-Justice-300x197.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Department-of-Justice-90x60.jpg 90w, https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Department-of-Justice.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>A federal jury convicted a San Fernando Valley, California man Monday for submitting fraudulent applications seeking money from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), officials stated.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv4633112398MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\">He submitted false statements to a financial institution and money laundering.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv4633112398MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\">According to the evidence, Robert Benlevi, 53, of Encino, submitted 27 PPP loan applications to four banks between April and June 2020 on behalf of eight companies solely owned by Benlevi.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv4633112398MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\">Benlevi was convicted of bank fraud, false statements to a financial institution, and money laundering. He is scheduled to be sentenced on June 27. He is facing up to 30 years in prison.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GuZzfvg3-ZA\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>(News Report July 2021)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv4633112398MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\">In the applications, Benlevi sought a total of $27 million in forgivable PPP loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration (SBA) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv4633112398MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\">In his fraudulent applications, Benlevi represented that each of his companies had 100 employees and an average monthly payroll of $400,000. However, he knew that the companies did not have any employees or payroll expenses. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv4633112398MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\">Benlevi also submitted fabricated IRS documents falsely stating that each of the companies had an annual payroll of $4,800,000.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv4633112398MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\">Based on Benlevi\u2019s fraudulent loan applications, three of Benlevi\u2019s companies \u2014 1Stellar Health LLC, Bestways2 Health LLC, and Joyous-Health4U LLC \u2014 obtained $3 million in PPP funds. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv4633112398MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\">Although Benlevi falsely represented that the funds sought through the PPP loan applications would be used to pay payroll and certain other business expenses, he instead used them for personal expenses, including cash withdrawals, payments on his personal credit cards, transfers to other personal and business accounts he controlled, and renting an oceanfront apartment in Santa Monica. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv4633112398MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\">In a single day, Benlevi withdrew from the Bestways2 Health account $248,000 of PPP funds in cashier\u2019s checks, which were deposited into other accounts that Benlevi controlled.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv4633112398MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: center;\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON\u00a0 A federal jury convicted a San Fernando Valley, California man Monday for submitting fraudulent applications seeking money from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), officials stated. He submitted false statements to a&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6172,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-department-of-justice"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Feds: California Man Convicted of $27 Million Paycheck Protection Fraud<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"WASHINGTON\u00a0 A federal jury convicted a San Fernando Valley, California man Monday for submitting fraudulent applications seeking money from the Paycheck\" \/>\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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