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In previously pleading guilty, Asjid Parvez, age 38, of Albany, admitted that in May 2023, the United States Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) sent him a US Treasury check for $972,564.61.
In 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act authorized the FSA to financially assist certain distressed borrowers who had fallen behind on repaying their federally guaranteed farm loans.
The US Attorney's Office of the Northern District of New York said Parvez was one such borrower, having defaulted on a loan he used to purchase a Maryland chicken farm in 2014.
The DA's office noted that Parvez knew he needed to use these funds to pay off the federally guaranteed farm loan on which he had defaulted.
"But instead, he stole the money and used the funds to pay personal expenses and to fund real estate investments," the DA's office said. "Parvez stole the money by opening a bank account in the name of his lender, depositing the Treasury check – jointly payable to the defendant and the lender – into that account, and then quickly transferring the Treasury funds to other accounts he controlled.
Parvez was sentenced to 18 months in prison and was ordered to pay restitution of $972,564.61 and is subject to asset forfeiture proceedings for property purchased with the stolen fund
He's also been ordered to serve three years of post-imprisonment supervised release.
The FBI has already seized $516,974.54 traceable to the federal funds that Parvez stole, and the US Attorney’s Office’s Asset Recovery Unit has filed a civil action seeking the forfeiture of a residential property in Albany that was purchased using approximately $202,675 in stolen funds.
The FBI investigated the case with assistance from the US Department of Agriculture Office of Inspector General.
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