LOS ANGELES – A person from the Santa Clarita Valley was sentenced at this time to 51 months federal jail for fraudulently receiving roughly $ 1.8 million in COVID-19 support granted by the Small Enterprise Administration (SBA) over the Financial Damage Catastrophe Mortgage (EIDL) program has been assured; and the Paycheck Safety Program (PPP).
The case is the results of an investigation by the El Camino Actual Monetary Crimes Activity Pressure of Homeland Safety Investigations (HSI) in Los Angeles and the Treasury Inspector Basic for Tax Administration.
Hassan Kanyike, 30, of Santa Clarita, was convicted by U.S. District Decide Virginia A. Phillips, who additionally fined him $ 20,000 and $ 1,302,550 in compensation to the SBA and 4 sacrificed lenders. Kanyike pleaded responsible on March 29 of a wire fraud cost.
From April 2020 to June 2020, Kanyike submitted six fraudulent PPP mortgage purposes and two fraudulent EIDL purposes. Funds have been sought within the filings to allegedly pay the salaries of staff he claimed labored for 2 of his firms. Kanyike raised roughly $ 1 million by 4 PPP loans and an extra $ 300,000 by two EIDL loans.
In help of the fraudulent PPP mortgage purposes, Kanyike filed solid federal tax returns and payrolls for a used automotive firm, Van Nuys-based Falcon Motors. For instance, in a single mortgage software, Kanyike falsely claimed the corporate had 26 staff and a median month-to-month payroll of $ 168,000, and he filed a fabricated IRS tax kind claiming that Falcon Motors had $ 2,022,300 in 2019. {Dollars} paid to staff.
In actuality, Falcon Motors had no staff on its payroll. Kanyike went on to confess that he obtained further employer identification numbers from the IRS in April and Could 2020 to permit him to use for a number of loans for a similar used automobile enterprise. Kanyike then makes use of a good portion of the PPP mortgage proceeds for its private profit.
Kanyike deliberate to fraudulently receive eight loans totaling roughly $ 1.8 million, six of which have been accredited for a complete of $ 1,302,550.
On the time of his arrest in December 2020, in violation of the phrases of the PPP and EIDL packages, Kanyike had transferred roughly $ 762,000 from one of many enterprise accounts that obtained the mortgage proceeds to Uganda, his nation of citizenship.
This case was being prosecuted by the US District Lawyer’s Division of Critical Fraud and Justice Division fraud.
HSI is the first investigative arm of the U.S. Division of Homeland Safety (DHS), answerable for investigating cross-border crime and threats, significantly the prison organizations that exploit the worldwide infrastructure that conducts worldwide commerce, journey, and finance.
HSI’s Operation Stolen Promise brings collectively HSI’s experience in world commerce, monetary fraud, worldwide operations and cybercrime. The initiative focuses investigative efforts on monetary fraud techniques, the importation of banned and fraudulent medication and medical provides, web sites that defraud shoppers or facilitate criminality, and some other unlawful prison exercise associated to the virus that threatens or compromises professional commerce, monetary techniques Endanger the general public.
HSI encourages the general public to report suspected unlawful prison exercise or fraudulent plans associated to the COVID-19 pandemic by emailing Covid19Fraud@dhs.gov.
