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Seth A. Bernstein, the owner of jet charter company All in Jets LLC dba JetReady, located in Florida, has agreed to pay $287,055 to settle allegations that he misappropriated Payment Protection Program (PPP) loan proceeds for his personal expenses. JetReady is a jet charter operator with its principal place of business in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Federal prosecutors have charged 28-year-old Fort Lauderdale, Florida resident Damara Holness with lying on a coronavirus relief loan application and fraudulently obtaining hundreds of thousands of dollars intended to help small businesses financially survive the Covid-19 pandemic.

A Florida man was sentenced today to 33 months in prison for fraudulently seeking over $7,263,564 in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration (SBA) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

Reversing a federal magistrate judge’s ruling, United States District Judge Robert N. Scola, Jr. has ordered that Kenny Terlent, 19, will remain in a federal detention center without bond pending his trial on charges of illegally possessing a machine gun, identity theft, and Covid-19 benefit related fraud.

A former South Florida banker was sentenced this week to 42 months’ imprisonment for participating in two frauds: the first, a scheme to steal over $60 million from investors and producers seeking financing for movies and Broadway shows; the second, concealing his criminal history on applications for COVID-19 relief loans.

This operational audit of the Department of Economic Opportunity (Department) focused on evaluating selected information technology (IT) application and general controls applicable to the Reemployment Assistance Claims and Benefits Information System (RA System, also known as CONNECT) and following up on the findings noted in our report No. 2019-183, as applicable to the scope of this audit.

Fort Myers, Florida – Senior U.S. District Judge John Steele has sentenced Casey David Crowther (35, Fort Myers) to three years and one month in federal prison for two counts of bank fraud, two counts of making a false statement to a lending institution, and two counts of money laundering. The court also ordered Crowther to forfeit $2,739,081.21, $630,482.37, and a 40’ catamaran boat, which were the proceeds of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) fraud and the mortgage fraud offenses.

Today, Hasan Hakim Brown, 45, pled guilty in Ft. Lauderdale federal district court to working with co-conspirators to steal $24 million of COVID-19 relief money by using synthetic identities and shell companies they had created years earlier to commit other bank fraud.

The Department of Justice today announced criminal charges against 14 defendants, including 11 newly-charged defendants and three who were charged in superseding indictments, in seven federal districts across the United States for their alleged participation in various health care fraud schemes that exploited the COVID-19 pandemic and resulted in over $143 million in false billings.