COURT DOC: Three Charged With Scheme To Fraudulently Obtain Over $14 Million In Covid-Relief Loans

DoJ announced that APOCALYPSE BELLA, a/k/a ‘Dias Yumba,’ MACKENZY TOUSSAINT, a/k/a ‘Mack,’ and AMOS MUNDENDI, a/k/a ‘Mos,’ a/k/a ‘El Ashile Mundi,’ were charged with participating in a fraudulent scheme to obtain over $14 million in Government-guaranteed loans designed to provide relief to small businesses during the novel coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic.

This scheme resulted in the approval of fraudulently procured loans for two companies (‘Company-1’ and ‘Company-2’), both located in the Southern District of New York, totaling approximately $4 million, and the distribution of the proceeds of these fraudulently obtained funds to a series of bank accounts located in the United States and elsewhere, including bank accounts controlled by TOUSSAINT and BELLA.

The PPP loan applications for Company-1 and Company-2 were false, containing lies designed to maximize proceeds to the fraud scheme. Specifically, applications for both Company-1 and Company-2 contained material differences from loan applications submitted for both companies for the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (‘EIDL’) program just months earlier. For instance, the PPP loan application for Company-1 represented that Company-1 had over 100 employees. However, an earlier EIDL loan application for Company-1 dated on or about March 30, 2020, represented that Company-1 had only four employees. (Source: U.S. Department of Justice)