Michele Beckwith Acting U.S. Attorney | U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California
A federal grand jury has indicted Akash Kumar Singh, a 48-year-old resident of Sacramento, on charges related to bank fraud and money laundering. Acting U.S. Attorney Michele Beckwith announced that Singh faces four counts of bank fraud and three counts of money laundering. The indictment was made public following Singh's arrest.
Court documents reveal that Singh allegedly acquired over $3 million in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans under false pretenses. These funds were meant to support small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Singh reportedly secured at least two PPP loans for a software development company named Kryptoblocks, which he claimed to lead. He falsely asserted that Kryptoblocks had substantial revenue and paid significant wages in 2019 and 2020, while it actually generated little income and employed no staff in the United States.
The investigation into this case was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the IRS Criminal Investigation unit, with Assistant U.S. Attorney Sam Stefanki handling the prosecution.
Should Singh be convicted, he could face up to 30 years in prison and a fine amounting to either $1 million or twice the value of any criminally derived property involved per money laundering count. However, sentencing would be determined by the court after considering statutory factors and Federal Sentencing Guidelines.
Singh is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt as these are currently allegations.
This case is part of an initiative led by a California COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Strike Force operation. This is one among five interagency strike force teams established by the U.S. Department of Justice focusing on pandemic relief fraud involving large-scale schemes perpetrated by criminal organizations and transnational actors across multiple states.
