A California man was convicted Monday of submitting fraudulent applications requesting money from the Paycheck Protection Program.
Robert Benlevi, 53, was convicted of bank fraud, making false statements to a financial institution, and money laundering stemming from 27 PPP loan applications Benlevi submitted in 2020 seeking a total of $27 million in forgivable loans for companies he falsely represented, the Department of Justice said Tuesday.
Benlevi submitted applications to four banks on behalf of eight companies he owned, which he falsely alleged had 100 employees and an average monthly payroll of $400,000, prosecutors said. In total, Benlevi received $3 million in funding on behalf of three companies, according to court filings.
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He also submitted fabricated IRS documents claiming that each of his companies had an annual payroll of $4.8 million, evidence obtained by the DOJ showed.
Though PPP loans are supposed to go toward payroll and other qualified business expenses, Benlevi used the money for personal expenses, payments on credit cards in his name, rent for an oceanfront apartment in Santa Monica, and other payments, prosecutors said.
One day in particular, Benlevi withdrew nearly $250,000 in cashier’s checks from one business account and later deposited them in a personal one, records showed.
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Benlevi is scheduled to be sentenced on June 27. He could face up to 30 years in prison for each bank fraud and false statement charge and up to 10 years for each count of money laundering.
Last year, Attorney General Merrick Garland established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to crack down on pandemic-related fraud.
