{"id":1125117,"date":"2021-12-16T12:14:20","date_gmt":"2021-12-16T17:14:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1125117"},"modified":"2021-12-16T12:14:24","modified_gmt":"2021-12-16T17:14:24","slug":"new-jersey-man-sentenced-to-prison-for-fraudulently-receiving-millions-in-covid-small-business-relief-funds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/new-jersey-man-sentenced-to-prison-for-fraudulently-receiving-millions-in-covid-small-business-relief-funds\/","title":{"rendered":"New Jersey Man Sentenced To Prison For Fraudulently Receiving Millions In Covid Small Business Relief Funds"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">32<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fnew-jersey-man-sentenced-to-prison-for-fraudulently-receiving-millions-in-covid-small-business-relief-funds%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1125117&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>A New Jersey man was sentenced to more than five years in prison on Tuesday for fraudulently taking $5.6 million in pandemic small business relief funds through the government\u2019s Paycheck Protection Program.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA Sussex County, New Jersey, man was sentenced today to 64 months in prison for fraudulently obtaining a federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan of over $5 million, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig announced,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-nj\/pr\/sussex-county-man-sentenced-64-months-prison-fraudulently-obtaining-56-million-loan-meant\">according<\/a> to the Department of Justice.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The sentences for money laundering and bank fraud were passed down by Judge Esther Salas at federal court in Newark to 31-year-old Azhar Sarwar Rana, who pleaded guilty to the charges.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Rana took money from the PPP, a program designed to aid small businesses in response to the pandemic, by applying for a loan for his purported real estate company \u201cAzhar Sarwar Rana LLC.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The DOJ said, \u201cNew Jersey Department of Labor records showed that Azhar Sarwar Rana LLC paid no wages in 2019, and the minimal wages it purportedly paid in 2020 were mostly to individuals whose submitted Social Security numbers did not correspond to their submitted names.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Rana used the $5.6 million loan he received through PPP for many personal expenses, including payments to a luxury car dealership, investing millions in the stock market, and sending hundreds of thousands of dollars overseas to Pakistan.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>He was arrested nearly a year ago as he attempted to fly to Pakistan. Special agents with the FBI, IRS, Homeland Security, and the Social Security Administration were credited with aiding in the investigation.<\/p>\n<p>According to the DOJ, the Paycheck Protection Program allowed, \u201cqualifying small businesses and other organizations to receive loans with a maturity of two years and an interest rate of 1 percent. Businesses must use PPP loan proceeds for payroll costs, interest on mortgages, rent and utilities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Last week another New Jersey man was also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-nj\/pr\/middlesex-man-sentenced-30-months-prison-paycheck-protection-program-fraud-scheme-and\">sentenced<\/a> for PPP fraud and \u201cdepositing a stolen and altered U.S. Treasury check.\u201d Bernard Lopez, 40, was sentenced to 30 months in prison by Judge Peter G. Sheridan for bank fraud and stealing government funds.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLopez devised a scheme to commit bank fraud through which a stolen and altered U.S. Treasury check was deposited into a corporate bank account Lopez created in the name of Pezlo Management LLC,\u201d the DOJ noted. \u201cThe check was altered to be made payable to Pezlo in the amount of $211,886 and was then deposited into Pezlo\u2019s corporate bank account. Lopez later withdrew or transferred the stolen proceeds from Pezlo\u2019s bank account before the bank could detect the fraud.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On top of that, Lopez also received about $481,502 in emergency relief funds from the government for a purported business he owned. Some of the money was then used for personal expenses. He will need to provide restitution for $137,000 and forfeiture of $481,502.<\/p>\n<p>Fraud pertaining to pandemic relief funds seems to be somewhat widespread, as an Oregon dentist on Wednesday was charged with stealing almost $8 million in relief funds.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSalwan Adjaj, 43, a former dentist residing in West Linn, Oregon, has been charged with aggravated identity theft and wire fraud,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-or\/pr\/oregon-dentist-faces-federal-charges-stealing-nearly-8-million-covid-relief-program-funds\">according<\/a> to the Attorney\u2019s Office for the District of Oregon. \u201cAccording to court documents, in and around March 2021, Adjaj allegedly submitted dozens of fraudulent loan applications to the Small Business Administration (SBA) in an attempt to obtain funds through the Economic Impact Disaster Loan (EIDL) program.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Adjaj allegedly used \u201cfictitious business entities\u201d to perpetrate the fraud and obtain nearly $8 million in relief funds.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\">member<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A New Jersey man was sentenced to more than five years in prison on Tuesday for fraudulently taking $5.6 million in pandemic small business relief funds through the government\u2019s Paycheck Protection Program.\u00a0\u201cA Sussex County, New Jersey, man was sentenced today to 64 months in prison for fraudulently obtaining a federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan of over $5 million, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig announced,\u201d according to the Department of Justice.\u00a0The sentences for money laundering and bank fraud were passed down by Judge Esther Salas at federal court in Newark to 31-year-old Azhar Sarwar Rana, who pleaded guilty to the charges.\u00a0Rana took money from the PPP, a program designed to aid small businesses in response to the pandemic, by applying for a loan for his purported real estate company \u201cAzhar Sarwar Rana LLC.\u201dThe DOJ said, \u201cNew Jersey Department of Labor records showed that Azhar Sarwar Rana LLC paid no wages in 2019, and the minimal wages it purportedly paid in 2020 were mostly to individuals whose submitted Social Security numbers did not correspond to their submitted names.\u201d\u00a0Rana used the $5.6 million loan he received through PPP for many personal expenses, including payments to a luxury car dealership, investing millions in the stock market, and sending hundreds of thousands of dollars overseas to Pakistan.\u00a0He was arrested nearly a year ago as he attempted to fly to Pakistan. Special agents with the FBI, IRS, Homeland Security, and the Social Security Administration were credited with aiding in the investigation.According to the DOJ, the Paycheck Protection Program allowed, \u201cqualifying small businesses and other organizations to receive loans with a maturity of two years and an interest rate of 1 percent. Businesses must use PPP loan proceeds for payroll costs, interest on mortgages, rent and utilities.\u201dLast week another New Jersey man was also sentenced for PPP fraud and \u201cdepositing a stolen and altered U.S. Treasury check.\u201d Bernard Lopez, 40, was sentenced to 30 months in prison by Judge Peter G. Sheridan for bank fraud and stealing government funds.\u00a0\u201cLopez devised a scheme to commit bank fraud through which a stolen and altered U.S. Treasury check was deposited into a corporate bank account Lopez created in the name of Pezlo Management LLC,\u201d the DOJ noted. \u201cThe check was altered to be made payable to Pezlo in the amount of $211,886 and was then deposited into Pezlo\u2019s corporate bank account. Lopez later withdrew or transferred the stolen proceeds from Pezlo\u2019s bank account before the bank could detect the fraud.\u201dOn top of that, Lopez also received about $481,502 in emergency relief funds from the government for a purported business he owned. Some of the money was then used for personal expenses. He will need to provide restitution for $137,000 and forfeiture of $481,502.Fraud pertaining to pandemic relief funds seems to be somewhat widespread, as an Oregon dentist on Wednesday was charged with stealing almost $8 million in relief funds.\u00a0\u201cSalwan Adjaj, 43, a former dentist residing in West Linn, Oregon, has been charged with aggravated identity theft and wire fraud,\u201d according to the Attorney\u2019s Office for the District of Oregon. \u201cAccording to court documents, in and around March 2021, Adjaj allegedly submitted dozens of fraudulent loan applications to the Small Business Administration (SBA) in an attempt to obtain funds through the Economic Impact Disaster Loan (EIDL) program.\u201dAdjaj allegedly used \u201cfictitious business entities\u201d to perpetrate the fraud and obtain nearly $8 million in relief funds.\u00a0The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a\u00a0member.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":200,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1125117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1125117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/200"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1125117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1125117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1125117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1125117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1125117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}