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Winchester Man Charged with COVID-Relief Fraud
[Justice.gov] Owner of Information Technology Services Company Fraudulently Sought More than $13 million in Small Business Administration Paycheck Protection Program Loans

A Winchester man was arrested today and charged with allegedly filing fraudulent loan applications seeking more than $13 million in forgivable loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration (SBA) for COVID-19 relief through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

Elijah Majak Buoi, 38, was charged in a criminal complaint with wire fraud, and will appear in federal court in Boston this afternoon.
I can’t find an image of the gentleman, but the company website lists two physical addresses: the one in Boston and another somewhere in India.
According to the complaint, Buoi is the president and CEO of an information technology services company, Sosuda Tech, LLC. Between April 2020 and June 2020, Buoi allegedly submitted fraudulent applications for over $13 million in PPP loans through SBA-approved lenders. In these applications, Buoi misrepresented the number of employees and payroll expenses and falsely certified that the United States was the primary residence for his employees. Buoi also allegedly submitted falsified documentation in support of his applications for PPP funds. The complaint further alleges that Buoi ultimately received over $2 million in PPP funds. The government has seized approximately $1.98 million from Sosuda’s business bank accounts.

"The defendant tried to defraud an emergency program designed to help businesses, and their employees, survive the most difficult economic crisis since the Great Depression," said United States Attorney Andrew E. Lelling. "This behavior is reprehensible, and my office is committed to rooting out and prosecuting this kind of fraud wherever we find it."

The CARES Act is a federal law enacted on March 29, 2020, designed to provide emergency financial assistance to the millions of Americans who are suffering the economic effects caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. One source of relief provided by the CARES Act was the authorization of up to $349 billion in forgivable loans to small businesses for job retention and certain other expenses, through the PPP. In April 2020, Congress authorized over $300 billion in additional PPP funding.

The PPP allows qualifying small-businesses and other organizations to receive loans with a maturity of two years and an interest rate of 1 percent. PPP loan proceeds must be used by businesses on payroll costs, interest on mortgages, rent and utilities. The PPP allows the interest and principal on the PPP loan to be forgiven if businesses spend the proceeds on these expenses within a set time period and use at least a certain percentage of the loan towards payroll expenses.
This is at least the second time that New England businessmen have been charged with fraud in connection with this program. In May, David A. Staveley, aka Kurt D. Sanborn, 52, of Andover, Massachusetts, and David Butziger, 51, of Warwick, Rhode Island, were accused of applying for loans by claiming to have dozens of employees earning wages at four different business entities when, in fact, there were no employees working for any of the businesses.
Posted by: trailing wife 2020-06-25
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=575253