North Texas man admits to orchestrating $23 million PPP loan fraud scheme
North Texas man admits he orchestrated a $ 23 million PPP loan fraud program
The owner of a tax consultancy firm in Dallas pleaded guilty to defrauding the COVID-19 relief program to help troubled business owners.
GARLAND, Texas – The owner of a tax consultancy firm in Dallas pleaded guilty to defrauding the COVID-19 relief program to help troubled business owners.
In addition, he has already been sentenced to six years in prison for a previous tax fraud conviction.
Investigators didn’t say how they were made aware of this, but some of his neighbors suspected he was up to something when they saw expensive cars driving around.
A 43-year-old Liberian citizen pleaded guilty on Tuesday of organizing a fraud program to raise more than $ 23 million in money that was supposed to help small businesses operating during, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas to fight the pandemic.
Steven Jalloul is an accountant. The address given for his business is in an office building in North Dallas.
A new residential address is in an apartment complex in Garland, where neighbors say Jalloul drove fancy cars and wore high-end clothing.
It all started when the federal government spent $ 350 billion on forgivable PPP loans during the pandemic. It should help companies in trouble to pay and keep their employees.
However, federal authorities say that after his arrest last fall, Jalloul admitted while he was working as an accountant that he was inflating the company’s workforce so they could get more money from the government.
According to federal prosecutors, Jalloul tried to get $ 23 million on behalf of more than 160 customers. 97 of these loans were approved. His clients received $ 12 million. He received nearly a million dollars in fees.
“I hope he gets what he deserves,” said neighbor Douglas Brennan. “Because it was the pandemic and there are people trying to stay afloat.”
The thing is, this is not Jalloul’s first conflict with the law. He pleaded guilty to the tax offenses in January 2020 and was on pre-trial detention for committing the PPP crimes, according to a criminal complaint.
“I would never have known that,” said Brennan.
Now Jalloul faces up to ten years in prison. Some of its neighbors cannot help but think about the companies that actually made and needed that money.
“Some snake comes by and takes money that could rightfully be theirs,” Brennan said.
Jalloul is waiting to be sentenced.
The Small Business Administration will decide whether to take back any portion of the $ 12 million donated to businesses.
It’s unclear whether companies knew they were getting more money than they should. The Justice Department would just refer us to the prosecution, which doesn’t mention that.
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