An Oklahoma woman who was part of a scheme to scam more than $32 million from a Covid relief fund designed to keep businesses afloat pleaded guilty Wednesday, federal prosecutors said.
Amanda J. Gloria, 45, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and money laundering, the Justice Department said in a statement.
She was charged in June with helping a New York man get a loan for close to $1 million with the Paycheck Protection Program, using faked payroll and other documents.
She also submitted and got around $421,000 from the pandemic relief program using a trucking business that she owned but that hadn’t been active since 2017, according to court documents associated with that $1 million case and the Justice Department.
But the department says that Gloria admitted Wednesday that she conspired to submit at least 153 fraudulent PPP applications on behalf of 111 entities between May 2020 and June 2021.
Those entities unlawfully got around $32.5 million in PPP funds, and she got $1.7 million, the Justice Department said in a statement. Gloria admitted that she faked and helped falsify the information in the claims, and then submitted them herself or assisted, it said.
Gloria’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday night.
Documents relating to the guilty plea did not appear to be online Wednesday night.
In the $1 million case, Gloria conspired with Adam Arena of Little Valley, New York, to file for a $954,00 PPP loan that was purported to go to Arena’s business.
The loan was granted, but Arena’s auto group business didn’t have any employees and had not been active since 2018. Arena then paid Gloria around $24,000, court documents in his case say.
Arena pleaded guilty in November to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and to another count that deals with transactions of money obtained illegally, according to the Justice Department.
The Paycheck Protection Program offered forgivable loans and was part of Congress’ massive Covid-19 relief funds first passed in 2020. It was intended to help businesses stay afloat during the pandemic.
It was part of the CARES Act passed by Congress in March 2020, when the pandemic shuttered businesses, schools and large parts of the rest of everyday life in the U.S.
Gloria is scheduled to be sentenced July 20 and faces up to 40 years in prison, the Justice Department said.
Arena has not yet been sentenced. Prosecutors have asked for a sentence of at least 63 months, or five years and three months, according to court documents in his case.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
