New York: Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz and New York State Inspector General Lucy Lang announced that nine individuals have been charged with grand larceny, criminal possession of stolen property and other crimes for allegedly separately stealing thousands of dollars in pandemic relief funds intended to help small business owners suffering hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As alleged, the defendants individually applied for the New York State Empire Development Pandemic Small Business Recovery Grant Program on behalf of multiple newly created or defunct businesses. Five of the defendants are additionally accused of defrauding the federal Economic Injury Disaster Loan program.
Each loan applicant certified that the funds were needed to cover business expenses such as payroll, commercial rent/mortgage payments, utilities and/or supplies. Most of the loan money received by the defendants was almost immediately transferred into their personal bank accounts. The total amount of stolen funds allegedly collected by the nine defendants was approximately $2,250,308.
District Attorney Katz said, “The COVID-19 pandemic caused great hardship for small business owners and their employees. These defendants are accused of intentionally exploiting the state and federal disaster relief programs through a multitude of fraudulent companies and lining their pockets with the proceeds. My office will not allow individuals to defraud our public service programs, and I thank our partners at the New York State Inspector General’s office and the NYPD for their work. We will seek restitution as part of our efforts to bring these defendants to justice.”
The defendants in this case include Tufail Ahmed, Yousuf MD, Juned Khan, Mohammad Chowdhury, Mahbub Malik, Mohammad Khan, Nadeem Sheikh, Tanvir Milon and Zakir Chowdhury.
