Three businessmen from the Washington, D.C. area have been sentenced to prison for their involvement in a scheme to defraud the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), a federal initiative designed to support small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Raymond Rahbar, 44, of Great Falls; Ryan Macaulay, 36, of Gambrills, Maryland; and Carl Pierre, 37, of Alexandria were co-founders of BYNDfit, a fitness center that was planned for Washington but never opened. According to court documents, between April 2020 and June 2021 the three submitted PPP loan applications with inflated employee numbers and false payroll summaries. These included names of individuals who did not work for BYNDfit—such as local students whose only connection was providing personal information at a career fair—and fabricated tax forms.
Rahbar also used similar misrepresentations about employee counts to secure four additional PPP loans for two construction companies he controlled: AMC Building Group and American Majestic Construction. In total, Rahbar fraudulently obtained at least $3.1 million in PPP loans and attempted to secure more than $4 million.
On April 10, Rahbar pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and aggravated identity theft. He received a sentence of four years and six months in prison. Macaulay pleaded guilty on April 15 to conspiracy to commit bank fraud, bank fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and unlawful monetary transactions; he was sentenced yesterday to two years in prison. Pierre pleaded guilty on September 4, 2024, to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and was sentenced on May 30 to one day in prison.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kristin S. Starr and Avi Panth along with former Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Hood prosecuted the case.
Lindsey Halligan, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia stated: "A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia." Reid Davis, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office's Criminal Division added: "Related court documents and information are located on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER by searching for Case No. 1:24-cr-180."
The Small Business Administration administered PPP loans up to $10 million per eligible business based on certified employee numbers during periods of financial disruption caused by COVID-19.
