A Brentwood resident, Thanh Duy Nguyen, has been sentenced to 37 months in prison for defrauding the United States government by securing approximately $300,000 in COVID-19 relief funds under false pretenses. The sentence was delivered by U.S. District Judge Rita F. Lin following Nguyen's guilty plea on two counts of wire fraud.

Court documents reveal that Nguyen, 53, operated T&A Distribution, an unlicensed marijuana distribution business with grow houses across the Bay Area. He used this entity to obtain two Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), which were intended to support small businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In his first loan application submitted in April 2020, Nguyen falsely certified that he was not involved in illegal activities as defined by federal law and misrepresented T&A Distribution as a nonprofit dealing in "Antiques/Collectibles." However, its actual business was marijuana distribution. He also provided inaccurate information regarding the company's gross revenue and employee numbers. The real gross revenue of T&A Distribution for the year leading up to January 31, 2020, was around $2.4 million.

Nguyen repeated these falsehoods in a second EIDL application filed in June 2020, again misrepresenting his business activities and financial details.

As a result of these fraudulent applications, Nguyen received about $300,000 in EIDL funds, which he partly used for his marijuana operations and gambling activities.

In addition to imprisonment, Judge Lin ordered Nguyen to serve three years of supervised release and pay $300,000 each in restitution and forfeiture. His prison term is set to begin on February 28, 2025.

The case announcement was made by United States Attorney Ismail J. Ramsey along with Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Special Agent Bob P. Beris and SBA Office of Inspector General (OIG) Special Agent Weston King.

This prosecution is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) investigation aimed at dismantling high-level drug traffickers and criminal organizations through coordinated efforts among various law enforcement agencies.

Assistant United States Attorney Joseph Tartakovsky led the prosecution with support from Sara Slattery following investigations conducted by DEA and SBA OIG.