{"id":50405,"date":"2022-07-19T14:46:16","date_gmt":"2022-07-19T21:46:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=50405"},"modified":"2022-07-19T16:10:03","modified_gmt":"2022-07-19T23:10:03","slug":"california-man-sentenced-to-11-years-in-prison-for-stealing-27-million-from","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=50405","title":{"rendered":"California Man Sentenced to 11 Years in Prison for Stealing $3 Million from Federal Government"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"A Southern California man was sentenced Tuesday to 11 years and three months in prison for submitting fraudulent applications seeking money from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), submitting false statements to a financial institution, and money laundering.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Robert Benlevi, 53, of Encino, was convicted by a federal jury of bank fraud, making false statements to a financial institution, and money laundering on March 28. <\/span><\/p>\n

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Benlevi 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

\"womanIn 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

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

The evidence further showed that Benlevi also submitted fabricated IRS documents falsely stating that each of the companies had an annual payroll of $4.8 million. <\/span><\/p>\n

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

\"\"Although Benlevi falsely represented that the funds sought through the PPP loan applications would be used for payroll and certain other business expenses, the evidence indicated. <\/span><\/p>\n

Instead, he used the money 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

The FBI, SBA-OIG, and FDIC-OIG investigated the case.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trial Attorney Justin Givens of the Criminal Division\u2019s Fraud Section prosecuted the case.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Southern California man was sentenced Tuesday to 11 years and three months in prison for submitting fraudulent applications seeking money from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), submitting false statements to a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50324,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-department-of-justice"],"yoast_head":"\nCalifornia Man Sentenced to 11 Years in Prison for Stealing $3 Million from Federal Government<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A Southern California man was sentenced Tuesday to 11 years and three months in prison for submitting fraudulent applications seeking money from the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" 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