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Ulster County resident Jean Lavanture, age 48, of Saugerties, also known as JR, and "Rudy" Lavanture, is the third person to plead guilty in this case, according to the US Attorney's Office.
In pleading guilty, Lavanture admitted to conspiring with another person to obtain $4,309,581 in Paycheck Protection Program loans between June and August 2020, by submitting fraudulent loan applications in the names of four companies that Lavanture controlled, court documents show.
Each loan application grossly misrepresented each company’s employees and payroll. Each application also included false corporate tax documents that were created as part of the scheme, the US Attorney said.
Lavanture admitted that none of his companies actually had a payroll or employees.
Lavanture also admitted that, on his own, he fraudulently obtained $561,200 in Economic Injury Disaster Loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration.
He has agreed to pay restitution in the amount of $4,870,781, and to forfeit proceeds of the fraud, including a motel property he purchased in Rockaway Beach, Missouri; $476,253.25 in cash; a 2007 Bentley Continental; a 2013 BMW X5; and the balances of 19 bank accounts at a total of nine banks, into which he deposited fraud proceeds.
Lavanture faces up to 30 years in prison for bank fraud conspiracy and up to 20 years in prison for wire fraud conspiracy when he is sentenced next year.
A citizen of Haiti, Lavanture has been in custody since September 2020, when FBI agents arrested him on a criminal complaint.
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