Four Houston-area men have recently been indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly taking part in a scheme to defraud $35 million in COVID-19 relief funds from the U.S. government.
The indictments make a total of 15 individuals across two states charged with conspiracy involving Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) press release said. The defendants allegedly submitted more than 80 fraudulent applications, receiving $18 million in PPP loan proceeds of the $35 million sought.
“Hamza Abbas, 29, Khalid Abbas, 55, Abdul Fatani, 55, all of Richmond; and Syed Ali, 53, of Sugar Land” made their initial appearances Dec. 16, the release said.
“The defendants in the superseding indictment are all charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud,” ICE said in the release. “Aqeel, Khalid Abbas, Ali and Fatani are also charged with money laundering. Aqeel is also charged with aggravated identity theft and is alleged to have submitted PPP loan applications by stealing the identities of uninvolved parties.”
The defendants allegedly laundered proceeds by writing checks to fake employees from companies that received the funds, the release said. The checks were then cashed at Almeda Discount Store, with proceeds allegedly going to the defendants and their relatives.
“The superseding indictment alleges that over 1,100 fake paychecks totaling more than $3 million in fraudulent PPP loan proceeds were cashed at Almeda,” the release said.
The defendants face a maximum of “20 years in prison per count of wire fraud and 10 years for each money laundering conviction,” the release said. Aqeel faces an additional minimum of two years for aggravated identity theft.
