Jamaicans charged for million dollar fraud

CMC – Two Jamaicans are among six people charged in a New York Federal Court with defrauding the United States’ Small Business Administration (SBA) Payroll Protection Program (PPP) of over 14 million United States dollars.

Recently unsealed court documents showed that  Jamaicans Glenroy Walker and  Gary Wheeler who both reside in the New York, were charged along with Donnat Powell, Howard Levy, Sherril Baez and Norma Getten for conspiring to commit wire fraud, an offence that carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison.

Walker and Levy are also charged with one count of aggravated identity theft, which carries a mandatory two-year sentence.

The court documents, which were unsealed by the US Attorney Office for the Southern District of New York, allege that between July 2020 and February 2022, Walker and Levy operated a scheme to submit fraudulent applications for loans from the Small Business Administration Payroll Protection Program.

Both men are alleged to have submitted more than 100 fraudulent PPP loan applications to various financial institutions, which contained  phony bank statements and tax documents.

The court documents also revealed that Baez, Getten, Powell and Wheeler’s participation in the scheme, included submitting fraudulent applications for their own purported businesses and recruiting other prospective fraudulent PPP applicants, for which Walker and Levy received significant kickbacks.

The fraudulent applications submitted by the six defendants collectively sought more than $14.7 million in loans and resulted in the disbursement of more than $4.6 million from various financial institutions, all guaranteed by the SBA, the court documents revealed.

United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams said the defendants allegedly schemed to steal millions of dollars from the payroll protection programme.

“As alleged, the defendants schemed to steal millions of dollars from a program Congress created to help struggling small businesses weather the COVID-19 pandemic.

“As we continue to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, this Office will pursue and prosecute the fraudsters that took advantage of a global emergency to greedily line their own pockets,” Williams said.

Michael J. Driscoll, the assistant director in charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), said, “As alleged, the defendants conspired to fraudulently obtain more than $14 million from the Paycheck Protection Program through applications containing sham documents.

“This, unfortunately, is another example of individuals attempting to scam a program that was designed to help Americans during unprecedented upheaval,” Driscoll said.

The assistant director of FBI new York office said that bringing to justice, fraudsters who abused the Paycheck Protection Program, will remain a priority for his office.

The Payroll Protection Program was created by Congress to provide billions of dollars in forgivable loans to struggling small businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Payroll Protection Program was overseen by the Small Business Administration, which guaranteed the loans issued, in the first instance, by commercial lenders.

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