A man who used government loans intended to help small businesses has pleaded guilty to cheating taxpayers of more than $1 million for a corporation he claimed operated an amateur basketball league, according to officials.
Jamar Johnson, a US citizen, pleaded guilty on Monday to defrauding taxpayers of $1,047,824 through the SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), according to the Department of Homeland Security. Acting DHS Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis stated that Jamar J. Johnson stole over $1 million from a pandemic relief program intended to help small businesses in need. This guilty plea sends a clear message: those who mislead the American people and attempt to conceal their crimes will face recognition, investigation, and prosecution. “DHS remains committed to safeguarding taxpayer-funded programs and ensuring justice for those who exploit them.”
In 2020, Johnson applied for a PPP loan for a company that he claimed ran an amateur league. However, once the funds were disbursed, Johnson utilized them to maintain his lifestyle, including purchasing bitcoin and transferring them to overseas markets in an attempt to disguise the criminal proceeds.
The hoax harmed small businesses that relied on government funds to stay open during the COVID-19 outbreak, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Fraud of this sort undermines the functioning of federal assistance programs and increases the burden on taxpayers, who ultimately bear the expense of these crimes,” the government stated in a statement to Fox News Digital.
Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), which operates under DHS, has jurisdiction over some financial offenses and was engaged in the investigation that resulted in Johnson’s guilty plea.
The federal government has cracked down on the vast amount of fraud resulting from PPP loans.
The plea news comes after the U.S. Small Business Administration forwarded 562,000 alleged fraudulent loans totaling over $22.2 billion to the US Department of Treasury for collection. Following an extensive review and with the strong support of the White House Anti-Fraud Task Force, we are taking our most decisive action yet to end a Biden-era scheme that protected over 560,000 borrowers linked to more than $22 billion in suspected pandemic-era fraud,” SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler told Fox News Digital.
The SBA accused former President Joe Biden of intentionally shielding suspected fraudsters by neglecting to report them to the Treasury.
In February, the SBA banned more than 111,000 California borrowers after detecting $8.6 billion in alleged pandemic-related fraud. The agency suspended 111,620 California borrowers, who received 118,489 PPP and Economic Injury Disaster (EIDL) loans for $8.6 billion. This astonishing figure represents the most substantial crackdown on people who cheated pandemic programs, and it reveals the extent of corruption that the Biden administration tolerated for years,” Loeffler stated at the time.
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