{"id":53663,"date":"2023-07-24T17:44:10","date_gmt":"2023-07-25T00:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=53663"},"modified":"2023-07-24T17:44:10","modified_gmt":"2023-07-25T00:44:10","slug":"nasa-jpl-employee-guilty-of-defrauding-covid-19-relief-program-used-some-money-to-grow-marijuana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=53663","title":{"rendered":"NASA-JPL Employee Guilty of Defrauding COVID-19 Relief Program, Used Some Money to Grow Marijuana"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"brown<\/a>Officials stated Monday that a NASA-Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) employee agreed to plead guilty to defrauding a government-sponsored loan program designed to help people and businesses survive the COVID-19 pandemic\u2019s economic impact.<\/span><\/p>\n

He also admitted using part of the proceeds to fund illegal marijuana cultivation, the Justice Department stated.<\/span><\/p>\n

Armen Hovanesian, 32, of Glendale, a cost-control and budget-planning resource analyst for the JPL, a federally funded research and development center operated by the California Institute of Technology for NASA, agreed to plead guilty to single-count information charging him with wire fraud. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Both the information and a plea agreement were filed Thursday in U.S. District Court.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to the plea agreement, from June 2020 to October 2020, Hovanesian submitted three loan applications in the names of business entities under his control to the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program (EIDL), a program administered by the Small Business Administration (SBA).<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"The SBA provided low-interest financing to small businesses, renters, and homeowners in regions affected by declared disasters, including businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to authorities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hovanesian admitted to making false and fraudulent statements in the loan applications concerning the gross revenues each of the businesses had generated in the preceding year.<\/span><\/p>\n

He also made false and fraudulent statements concerning his intended use of loan proceeds.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hovanesian certified to the SBA under penalty of perjury that he would \u201cuse all the proceeds\u201d of the loans for which he applied and caused others to apply for \u201csolely as working capital to alleviate economic injury caused by disaster\u201d consistent with the terms and limitations of the EIDL program. <\/span><\/p>\n

But Hovanesian instead applied those proceeds toward his own prohibited personal benefit to repay personal real-estate debt and fund his illegal marijuana cultivation. <\/span><\/p>\n

Hovanesian fraudulently caused the SBA to transfer via interstate wire EIDL proceeds totaling $151,900.<\/span><\/p>\n

After Hovanesian pleads guilty, he will face up to 20 years in federal prison.<\/span><\/p>\n

The SBA Office of Inspector General and NASA Office of Inspector General are investigating this matter. The U.S. Secret Service also provided substantial assistance.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam P. Schleifer of the Major Frauds Section is prosecuting this case.<\/span><\/p>\n

On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. <\/span><\/p>\n

The Task Force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with administering relief programs to prevent fraud by augmenting and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts. <\/span><\/p>\n

For more information on the department\u2019s response to the pandemic, please visit\u00a0https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/coronavirus<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice\u2019s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at (866) 720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at\u00a0https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/disaster-fraud\/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES\u00a0 Officials stated Monday that a NASA-Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) employee agreed to plead guilty to defrauding a government-sponsored loan program designed to help people and businesses survive the COVID-19 pandemic\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7404,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3255],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-federal-court"],"yoast_head":"\nNASA-JPL Employee Guilty of Defrauding COVID-19 Relief Program, Used Some Money to Grow Marijuana<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"LOS ANGELES\u00a0 Officials stated Monday that a NASA-Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) employee agreed to plead guilty to defrauding a government-sponsored loan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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