By Hank McCoy
A Coral Springs resident has been charged as part of a criminal conspiracy to defraud the federal government of more than $ 24 million in PPP loans to Small Business Administration through the CARES Act.
Phillip J. Augustin, 51, was charged in Ohio with wire fraud, bank fraud, conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud, and obstruction of justice for using his talent management business to file at least 90 fraudulent claims for PPP loans through of the CARES Act.
Augustin allegedly obtained a fraudulent PPP loan for his company Clear Vision Music Group LLC, using forged documents.
According to a U.S. Department of Justice, Augustin and one of his co-conspirators, Wyleia Williams, 44, of Fort Lauderdale, began working with other co-conspirators to file various fraudulent PPP loan applications for ‘confederate’ lenders.
Williams was brought in to facilitate the scheme, and Augustin focused on recruiting loan applicants, as well as other collaborators to recruit even more applicants.
Augustin, Williams, and the other seven co-conspirators named by the DOJ received kickbacks from the forgiving loans the applicants received. Of the $ 24 million in applications submitted, $ 17.4 million is roughly approved and funded by financial institutions.
The scheme was presumably a nationwide effort using the business connections Augustin made through his management of professional footballers to recruit potential applicants.
DOJ documents claim that Damian McKenzie, 38, of Miami Gardens, Andre Clark, 46, of Miramar, and Keyaira Bostic, 31, of Pembroke Pines applied for PPP loans for their own businesses through Augustin.
They recruited candidates for PPP loans for Augustin and received a portion of the loan proceeds as a result.
Other accomplices named in the indictment are James Stote, 54, of Hollywood, Ross Charno, 46, of Fort Lauderdale, Deon Levy, 50, of Bedford, Ohio, and Abdul-Azeem Levy, 22, of Cleveland, Ohio.
U.S. Attorney Ariana Fajardo Orshan for the Southern District of Florida stated, “Those who cheat on the program without considering the effect their actions of greed have on small business owners and employees who legally need the money will be vigorously pursued by my office. ”
The case is being investigated by the Iinc Criminal Investigation’s Cincinnati and Miami Field Offices, the FBI’s Cleveland and Miami Field Offices, and the Office of the Inspector General’s Small Business Authority.
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