NEW ORLEANS – U.S. Attorney Duane A. Evans introduced that STACEY V. SANTEMORE, SR., age 46, previously of New Orleans however now a resident of Houston, Texas, pleaded responsible on April 27, 2022 earlier than U.S. District Court Judge Jay C. Zainey to a two-count invoice of data charging him with making false statements and theft of presidency funds associated to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act).
The CARES Act is a federal legislation enacted on March 29, 2020, to present emergency monetary help in reference to financial results of the COVID-19 pandemic. One supply of aid supplied by the CARES Act was the authorization of up to $349 billion in forgivable loans to small companies for job retention and sure different bills, by way of the PPP. The PPP permits qualifying small companies and different organizations to obtain loans with a maturity of two years and an rate of interest of 1%. PPP mortgage proceeds should be utilized by companies on payroll prices, curiosity on mortgages, lease, and utilities. The PPP permits the curiosity and principal on the PPP mortgage to be forgiven if the enterprise spends the mortgage proceeds on these expense gadgets inside a chosen time period after receiving the proceeds and makes use of a minimum of a sure share of the PPP mortgage proceeds on payroll bills. In April 2020, Congress licensed over $300 billion in extra PPP funding.
In addition, the CARES Act created a brief federal unemployment insurance coverage program known as Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) after a serious catastrophe declaration for this funding. PUA, administered by the Louisiana Workforce Commission (LWC), supplied unemployment insurance coverage advantages for people who usually are not eligible for different varieties of unemployment advantages (e.g., the self-employed, unbiased contractors, or gig economic system staff).
According to the charging paperwork, SANTEMORE, in July 2020, made false statements to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) for the aim of fraudulently acquiring pandemic-related aid loans funded by the federal authorities, together with PPP funds, which he obtained within the quantity of roughly $89,000 on July 14, 2020.
SANTEMORE additionally utilized for Louisiana unemployment advantages by way of the LWC with PUA funding regardless of always being absolutely employed by Amtrak, the nationwide passenger railcar firm. Through this theft of presidency funds, he obtained roughly $22,000 from April 2020 by way of March 2021.
SANTEMORE faces a sentence of up to 5 years in jail, up to $250,000 in fines, and up to three years of supervised launch for the false statements depend. He faces up to ten years in jail, up to $250,000 in fines, and up to three years of supervised launch for the theft depend. There can also be a $100 necessary particular evaluation payment per depend. Sentencing earlier than U.S. District Court Judge Zainey shall be on July 26, 2022.
On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the assets of the Department of Justice in partnership with businesses throughout authorities to improve efforts to fight and stop pandemic-related fraud. The Task Force bolsters efforts to examine and prosecute probably the most culpable home and worldwide legal actors and assists businesses tasked with administering aid applications to stop fraud by, amongst different strategies, augmenting and incorporating present coordination mechanisms, figuring out assets and methods to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing info and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts. For extra info on the Department’s response to the pandemic, please go to https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus.
For extra info on the Department of Justice’s response to the pandemic, please go to https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus. Anyone with details about allegations of tried fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or by way of the NCDF Web Complaint Form at https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.
U.S. Attorney Evans praised the work of the Amtrak Office of Inspector General – Criminal Investigations and the Department of Labor – Office of the Inspector General, in investigating this matter. Assistant U.S. Attorney Edward J. Rivera is in control of the prosecution.