2 Venezuelans with TPS jailed after ripping off PPP loans in South Florida: feds
Freddy Urribarri and Mairilin Muñoz are recipients of Temporary Protected Status, which allowed them to live and work in the United States.
The pair served as president and vice president of FU & MM General Services, a Dania Beach-based corporation. Both were arrested April 21 and charged with multiple counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and money laundering.
Per a federal indictment, Urribarri and Muñoz submitted numerous fraudulent loan applications between March 2021 and February 2022, seeking to exploit the federally backed program designed to support small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The indictment alleges they grossly inflated company revenues and falsified the number of employees on official PPP loan applications submitted to several lenders.
In one instance, FU & MM claimed to employ 17 workers and generate more than $3.2 million in annual revenue. Those figures were 'false and fraudulent,' according to prosecutors, who noted the company had significantly fewer employees and lower earnings.
Feds said one lender accepted the false representations and approved a loan of about $438,000.
'Once they received the loan proceeds, the defendants engaged in a scheme to conceal the nature of the funds,' the U.S. Department of Justice said in a press release. 'Munoz also engaged in financial transactions over $10,000 using proceeds of the fraud.'
The loans in question were part of the CARES Act, which passed in March 2020 to provide emergency relief to businesses impacted by the pandemic. The Paycheck Protection Program allowed for full loan forgiveness if recipients met certain criteria, namely using funds for payroll and approved operating expenses.
Homeland Security Investigations Miami (HSI Miami) investigated the case.
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