The Covid-19 pandemic is about to turn two years old, and since then all the countries in the world took measures to prevent spread, including the partial border closureyes, the brake on certain non-essential activities and the delivery of supports to people who, due to their work, could not stop but were at risk.
One of those nations that provided support was USA, whose now former president, Donald Trump, promoted the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES, for its acronym in English). In this program – in force until May of this year – checks to small businesses to cover your expenses and not go bankrupt during the health emergency.
He defrauded the government and bought luxurious things
While this economical support managed to keep many entrepreneurs from going bankrupt, many others abused the help and defrauded the government by asking for checks and loans supposedly to pay for the expenses of their companies, but in the end they put the money to a different use.
Such is the case of a 30-year-old Texan man, who requested more than 2.6 million dollars to the government to pay the employees of its three companies via the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP, in English). Authorities only they authorized 1.6 million but after an investigation, they found that he had let them down.
Turns out that Lee Price III He lied when asking for the support, both in the name of his companies, and in the number of employees that supposedly were in them. According to a document from the United States Department of Justice, the subject misrepresented the number of workers it had, but later it was discovered that their alleged companies or collaborators had, consequently, no payroll to pay, that is, the tax records you submitted were false.
Then, the Texas authorities, in collaboration with the federal ones, investigated it and their surprise was that with the money from the pandemic support, Price had bought, among other things, a sports car Lamborghini urus, a truck Ford F-350, an ostentatious Rolex brand watch and paid off a substantial loan.
He also spent about two thousand dollars on a striptease establishment, more than 2,500 in night clubs and about 700 in a liquor store. The US Department of Justice reported that of the $ 1.6 million the man received, they were able to recover just over 700 thousand.
This Monday, November 29, Lee Price III was declared guilty of wire fraud and money laundering and purge a sentence of nine years and two months in prison.
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