Tag: PPP

Categories
Business

Man Purchased Lamborghini With PPP Mortgage, Prosecutors Say

Man Bought Lamborghini With PPP Loan, Prosecutors Say

A California man who received more than $ 5 million in paycheck protection program loans to help businesses in trouble during the coronavirus pandemic was arrested Friday on Friday on federal bank fraud and other charges after prosecutors said he had used the money to buy a Lamborghini and other federal luxury cars.

The man, Mustafa Qadiri, 38, from Irvine, was charged by a federal grand jury on four cases of bank fraud, four cases of wire fraud, one case of aggravated identity theft and six cases of money laundering, the U.S. attorney in the Central District of California announced.

Prosecutors said Mr. Qadiri’s federal loan efforts began in late May 2020 and grossed him nearly $ 5.1 million by early June. Mr. Qadiri is accused of using that money on a shopping spree that included buying a Ferrari, a Lamborghini and a Bentley and paying for “wasteful vacations,” all of which are banned under the paycheck protection program, prosecutors said.

Bilal A. Essayli, a lawyer for Mr. Qadiri, declined to comment.

Mr. Qadiri filed applications for Covid-19 relief funds with three different banks to help four California-based companies that were actually down, according to prosecutors. In addition to submitting fraudulent company information and “changed bank account details”, a statement from the prosecutor said Mr. Qadiri was using someone else’s name, social security number and signature on applications.

Some of Mr. Qadiri’s assets have already been confiscated, prosecutors said. Federal agents seized a 2011 Ferrari 458 Italia registered with All American Capital Holdings, one of the companies listed on Mr. Qadiri’s PPP loan applications. A 2018 Lamborghini Aventador S registered with the same company was also confiscated.

The 2011 Ferrari 458 Italia can sell for more than $ 100,000, according to Cars.com. It has a V-8 engine and 570 horsepower and can go from zero to 62 mph in 3.4 seconds. Says the rating.

Another popular website for auto enthusiasts, Kelley Blue Book, has a listing for a 2011 Ferrari 458 Italia that sells for $ 179,000. The website also has a 2018 report on the Lamborghini Aventador S that states, “There is no better car to showcase your success or to stroke your ego.” This car has a V-12 engine and 740 horsepower and can go from zero to 60 mph in less than three seconds. According to the test report, one of its disadvantages is: “The Aventador is neither the most comfortable car to drive in, nor is it terribly efficient. It deserves an EPA estimated at 10 mpg for city driving. “

On Lamborghini.com, the website describing the Aventador S has the slogan “Dare your ego”.

Prosecutors said in a statement that another luxury vehicle Mr. Qadiri bought with PPP money, a 2020 Bentley Continental GT Coupe, had also been confiscated.

A US law firm spokesman said that if Mr. Qadiri were convicted, the charges against him would result in a maximum sentence of 302 years in prison.

Dozens of people have been arrested and charged with misusing pandemic aid funds. Mr. Qadiri is at least the third person to be charged with buying a Lamborghini.

In July, a Florida man who had received nearly $ 4 million was arrested on bank fraud and other charges after buying a blue Lamborghini for $ 318,497. In August, a Texas man who received more than $ 1.6 million from the same federal program was arrested on bank fraud and other charges after buying a 2019 Lamborghini Urus for $ 233,337.60, among other charges.

In February, Florida man David T. Hines pleaded guilty to wire fraud with a maximum sentence of up to 20 years in prison. He is waiting to be sentenced. The case against Texas man Lee Price III continues.

Categories
Business

U.S. Readies Small Enterprise Grants as P.P.P. Nears Finish

U.S. Readies Small Business Grants as P.P.P. Nears End

The federal government is preparing to open two new industry-specific aid programs for small businesses, one of which has been in the works for months as the signing of the pandemic aid, the Paycheck Protection Program, is nearing its end.

The Small Business Administration hopes to apply for a $ 16 billion grant fund by the end of this week for live event businesses such as theaters and music clubs. The program, called the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant, was slated to begin nearly two weeks ago, but its application system failed and collapsed, hampering thousands of desperate companies that had waited months for the promised help.

On Saturday, the agency released more details on its upcoming Restaurant Revitalization Fund, a $ 28.6 billion support program for bars, restaurants and food trucks whose sales have been devastated by the forced shutdowns states imposed in response to the pandemic . The fund was created last month as part of the $ 1.9 trillion economic support package. A seven-day trial will begin within the next two weeks to help the agency avoid the technical fiasco that plagued the event program.

The agency has not announced a specific start date for either of the two funding programs.

“Help is here,” said Isabella Casillas Guzman, the agency’s administrator, of the restaurant program. “We’re rolling out this program to ensure these companies meet payroll, buy supplies, and get what they need to transition to today’s Covid-restricted market.”

Both programs offer recipients up to $ 10 million in grants to compensate for a portion of their lost sales. However, it is expected that both programs, where the money is distributed based on prioritization rules based on availability, will run out of money quickly. In particular, the money in the restaurant fund is lagging far behind its needs, agency officials have recognized.

“Everyone should apply on day one,” Patrick Kelley, director of the agency’s Office of Capital Access, told attendees in a webinar organized last week by the Independent Restaurant Coalition. Lawmakers predicted demand of at least $ 120 billion for the restaurant fund, Kelley said, but provided less than a quarter of that amount.

The Restaurant Fund Law provided an exclusive 21-day period for businesses that are majority-owned by women, veterans, or socially disadvantaged people. The SBA said the group includes those who are black and Hispanic, as well as Native Americans, Americans from the Asia-Pacific region, and Americans from South Asia.

That time alone will almost certainly run out of restaurant funds. Applicants are asked to self-certify their eligibility for the priority period, according to the Small Business Administration.

Participants in the fund’s seven-day pilot phase will be randomly selected from among current paycheck protection program borrowers who meet the criteria for the priority period, the agency said. You will help test the system, but will not receive grants until the application system is opened to the public.

The SBA has released few details about the technical breakdown that destroyed its application system for the Live Events Grant program. On the day it was supposed to open, frustrated applicants spent more than four hours reloading a broken site before the agency closed it. No applications were accepted.

“After our vendors had fixed the main cause of the initial technical problems, more in-depth risk analysis and stress tests identified other problems that affect application performance,” said Andrea Roebker, spokeswoman for the agency, on Friday. “The providers address and mitigate them quickly and work tirelessly with our team so that the application portal can be reopened as quickly as possible and we can provide this important help.”

A spokeswoman for Salesforce.com, whose technology supports the system, said the company “worked with SBA to resolve initial technical issues and we are continuing to work together to improve website performance.”

The restaurant fund is managed by a different part of the agency and uses a different technology system than the closed events program. After waiting nearly four months for this program to start, industrial companies can’t hold out much longer, said Audrey Fix Schaefer, a spokeswoman for the National Independent Venue Association, a trade group.

“Landlords can’t last forever. Eviction notices come. People say, “We can’t do this anymore,” she said.

The Paycheck Protection Program, launched just weeks after the pandemic broke out, extended $ 762 billion in unsuccessful loans to millions of businesses last year.

It is slated to end by May 31, but it seems likely that its funding will run out before then. According to an SBA spokesman, the program had $ 44 billion left by mid-week.

Categories
Politics

PPP Support to Small Companies: How A lot Did $500 Billion Assist?

PPP Aid to Small Businesses: How Much Did $500 Billion Help?

However, anecdotes like Mr. Geismann’s are not easy to interpret. Perhaps Schuchart and similar companies would have found another way to make ends meet or would have hired workers again quickly after construction projects resumed.

Economists have tried to answer this question with data. Mr. Autor compared companies with just under 500 employees – who could qualify for the original version of the program – with companies just above that size that could not. If the loans were of great help, the smaller companies should have kept many more of their workers. Instead, Mr. Autor found little difference between the two groups.

However, some economists argue that such research underestimates the impact of the program because it does not focus on the smallest businesses that were less likely to have large cash reserves or other financial resources.

A paper based on a survey of Oakland, Calif. Companies found that those who received PPP loans were 20.5 percent more likely to say they would survive half a year – that the relatively larger one However, optimism was limited to companies with fewer than five employees.

Robert Bartlett, one of the authors of the Oakland study, said economists like Mr. Autor might be right that PPP saved fewer jobs than hoped. “But for these small businesses, it has helped them keep their doors open,” he said. “I am convinced of that.” Many of these companies are located in poor areas or are owned by racial or ethnic minorities.

Daniel G. Guerra Jr. founded AltusLearn in 2013, which provides training and compliance courses for healthcare professionals. Last year, the Madison, Wisconsin-based company had six employees and was well on its way to a year of significant growth.

Instead, at the beginning of the pandemic, the medical centers suspended virtually all non-urgent treatments and dropped out of training.