North Texas Tax Consultant Pleads Guilty To $23M COVID-19 Relief Fraud – CBS Dallas / Fort Worth
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – A Liberian national who orchestrated a fraudulent scheme to secure more than $ 23 million in forgivable paycheck protection program loans pleaded guilty of a federal financial crime on Tuesday, October 19.
Steven Jalloul, a 43-year-old tax advisor from the Dallas area, was first charged on a criminal complaint in September 2020 and charged later that month.
He pleaded guilty to allegation of substitute information once alleging financial transactions involving the use of property from illegal activities.
“The Paycheck Protection Program was designed to help hard-working business people keep their businesses afloat during the pandemic – not to fill the pockets of unscrupulous accountants,” Acting US Attorney Chad Meacham said in a statement. “The Justice Department will prosecute anyone who tries to take advantage of pandemic-era financial programs. There are countless corporations devastated by COVID-19 that have made this money. Mr. Jalloul not. “
According to the lawsuit, Jalloul admitted defrauding lenders participating in the Paycheck Protection Program – a measure approved by Congress in the early days of the pandemic to provide forgiving loans to small businesses affected by COVID-19 – while on the Conviction in a separate tax fraud case awaited.
In court documents, he admitted to filing around 170 fake PPP loan applications to lenders on behalf of more than 160 clients of his tax advisory firm Royalty Tax & Financial Services LLC, aiming for more than $ 23 million.
Jalloul admitted that he inflated customer lists and monthly payrolls to increase the amount of PPP funds their companies would be eligible for, the US prosecutor said in a press release.
In general, he charged his clients a commission of 2 to 20 percent on the PPP loans received and even introduced his ex-wife as an authorized agent of Royalty Tax without her consent when he was looking for an inflated PPP loan for his own business.
A total of 97 false PPP loan applications were ultimately approved, and Jalloul’s clients received more than $ 12 million in PPP funds. T
Hose customers paid him at least $ 972,114 in fees.
Jalloul faces up to 10 years in prison for the PPP fraud.
His judgment date has not yet been set.
He is already behind bars at FCI-Seagoville after pleading guilty to a separate tax fraud case in January 2020; in this case he was sentenced to six years in federal prison.
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