Crop Bistro owner Marcelo Fadul Neves indicted in $846K theft of COVID relief funding
[In the player above, watch FOX 8 News coverage on the Restaurant Revitalization Fund from 2021.]
CLEVELAND (WJW) — The owner of a shuttered Ohio City restaurant spent more than $800,000 in pandemic business relief funds from the federal government on his personal expenses and debts, according to the Cuyahoga County prosecutor.
A county grand jury handed up an indictment charging the owner of Crop Bistro & Bar, Marcelo Fadul Neves, 59, of Westlake, with 15 felony counts, including aggravated theft, telecommunications fraud, tampering with records, grand theft and passing bad checks, according to a Wednesday news release.
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Neves in 2021 applied for relief through the Restaurant Revitalization funding, administered by the U.S. Small Business Administration to help struggling restaurants keep their doors open during the COVID-19 pandemic, and received $846,720 for his business.
But Crop Bistro, along Lorain Avenue in Cleveland's Ohio City neighborhood, had already closed, according to prosecutors.
In the restaurant's last Facebook post in December 2020, operators said it would be closing for two weeks 'due to unforeseeable circumstances.'
Neves instead used the funding for personal expenses, to pay off debts and to buy another restaurant in Olmsted Falls, called Bistro on the Falls, which was also later closed, according to prosecutors.
Separate from the federal funding theft, he also allegedly wrote bad checks to multiple people, including employees, totaling more than $140,000. Several of the bounced checks, totaling $105,000, were made out to DeWitt's Jewelry, according to his indictment.
Dept. of Education laying off more than 1,300 employees, terminating leases in Cleveland, other cities
Neves was arrested Tuesday, March 11, by agents with the U.S. Secret Service Money Laundering Task Force, with help from Westlake police, according to the release.
He is set for arraignment on Thursday, March 13, court records show.
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The girl who believed me the most actually sent me a long message on Facebook about how sorry she was, how she teaches her children to be different, and that her attitude was in response to her crappy home life. We are friends now, send each other Christmas cards, and even met for a glass of wine. After 30 years, let bygones be bygones. However, to this day, I am very particular about my appearance whenever I'm in public to prove that I'm not that girl from junior high anymore. Whenever I hear two people talking in low voices, I think they are talking about me. Bullying sticks with you for life. I'm in my 40s and still working through it." —katied47fd64e0d 23."One of the boys who made it his life goal to bully me came from a nice upper-class family, but he was totally low-class. In sixth grade, we had a class swim party, and he convinced all of the kids that I'd poison the pool and that I wasn't wanted there. 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He's now in prison for murdering someone. He became homeless, lived in an encampment, and got into it one night with some other guy and killed him. Another one was this awful girl from high school who, I swear, inspired Mean Girls. At some point, she was in an accident and is now paralyzed from the waist down, in a wheelchair, and lives alone in government housing. You'd think that would humble someone, but no. Her Facebook is still super rude, so I guess she hasn't changed." "Finally, just based on my own experiences as a parent, I'm pretty sure most bullies grow up and end up being parent bullies in the PTA. I quit doing volunteer work at the schools because I am too old to deal with people who peaked in high school and are still doing the same crap." —j4287b3497 28."I had one 'friend' bully me for my sexuality. She is now a mental health nurse." —woofshoe 29."We wound up becoming friends online. She had dropped out of school and gotten her GED. 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When they made my life hell, people said, 'Karma will get them back one day. They'll end up sad and alone,' but it doesn't always work like that. Sometimes, they end up happy and fulfilled. But I don't begrudge them that. I hope they grew up emotionally and realized that being cruel wasn't conducive to happiness." —emmak26 What happened to your childhood bully later in life? Tell us in the comments or share anonymously using this form.
