Reports

Raisha Kelly, 44, of Loxahatchee, FL was sentenced to sixty months in prison followed by three years of supervised release and ordered to pay $443,895 in restitution by United States District Court Judge Federico A. Moreno. The sentence follows Kelly’s conviction for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud.

Lazaro Verdecia Hernandez, 37, of Miami, was sentenced today to 15 years in federal prison for leading a scheme that involved obtaining fraudulent loans under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and laundering the proceeds.

A United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer has been arrested on a five-count federal grand jury indictment alleging he fraudulently obtained nearly $150,000 in COVID-19 pandemic business-relief loan funds for two of his sham businesses, the Justice Department announced today.

Tampa, Florida – United States Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe announces that Denys Perez (31, Tampa) has pleaded guilting to wire fraud related to COVID relief funds. Perez faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison. In addition, he faces a forfeiture order of $502,900, as well as a forfeiture order for the property he purchased with proceeds of his offense. A sentencing date has not yet been set.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – W. Stephen Muldrow, U.S. Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico, announced the indictment of two businessmen, a certified public accountant, and four Puerto Rico-based companies for a fraudulent scheme to illegally obtain federal recovery funds under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, bribe a bank employee, and launder the fraudulent proceeds of the scheme.

Two brothers from Sedona, Arizona, pleaded guilty for conspiring with one another and others to defraud the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) out of nearly $109 million in loans intended to help small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cortney Merritts, 46, of St. Louis, Missouri, was charged today by federal indictment with two counts of wire fraud for allegedly filing fraudulent applications with the Small Business Administration in 2020 and 2021 that allowed him to collect more than $20,000 in government funds under the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program (EIDL) and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).