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CARES Act

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NJ Man Who Spent $5.6M COVID Relief On Stock Market, Luxury Car Sentenced NJ Man Who Spent $5.6M COVID Relief On Stock Market, Luxury Car Sentenced
NJ Man Who Spent $5.6M COVID Relief On Stock Market, Luxury Car Sentenced A Sussex County man was sentenced Tuesday to more than five years in federal prison for spending $5.6 million in federal COVID-19 pandemic business loans for himself, authorities said. Azhar Sarwar Rana, 31, of Newton will have to serve out just about all of the 64-month sentence because there's no parole in the federal prison system. The federal Paycheck Protection Program was designed to keep struggling small businesses afloat during the pandemic. Rana used the money, instead, to invest millions in the stock market, make a payment to a luxury car dealership and send hundreds of thous…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Police & Fire
8 Philly Police Employees Indicted For Collecting Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Funds 8 Philly Police Employees Indicted For Collecting Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Funds
8 Philly Police Employees Indicted For Collecting Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Funds Eight Philadelphia police department employees were indicted for collecting Pandemic Unemployment Assistance funds, while also collecting their paychecks, federal authorities announced Tuesday. A grand jury on Nov. 18 returned indictments against Shannon Reynolds, 25, Monica Pelzer, 45, Yarelis Feliciano, 28, Najah Harrell, 32, Korey Kinard, 28, Keely Maude, 23, Tashika White, 50, and Paulette Johnson, 55, according to the U.S Department of Justice. All but Johnson, who is employed as a clerk, work as radio dispatchers for the police department. Each …

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by Nicole Acosta
News
NJ Woman Admits Destroying Evidence In $400,000 COVID Unemployment Scam NJ Woman Admits Destroying Evidence In $400,000 COVID Unemployment Scam
NJ Woman Admits Destroying Evidence In $400,000 COVID Unemployment Scam A Union County woman admitted in federal court that she was shredding bogus credit and debit cards -- obtained by a man who fraudulently collected $400,000 in pandemic unemployment benefits from the state of New York -- when investigators came busting in. Detectives armed with a search warrant found Latoyia McCollum, 46, of Hillside in the kitchen of an undisclosed location "placing what appeared to be a credit/debit card into the shredder" while face-timing on a cellphone in October 2020, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said. McCollum told them she was on the phone with Maurice Mills…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Feds: NJ Scammer Used Dead People’s Names To Get $1.9M COVID Relief Feds: NJ Scammer Used Dead People’s Names To Get $1.9M COVID Relief
Feds: NJ Scammer Used Dead People’s Names To Get $1.9M COVID Relief A Sussex County scammer identified people who’d been dead for years as business partners to help collect $1.9 million from the federal fund established to help struggling companies during COVID-19, authorities charged. John Jhong, 51, of Sparta, also submitted phony IRS documents with bogus Paycheck Protection Program applications to the lenders on behalf of 10 purported businesses, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said. Jhong converted a portion of the money intended for distressed businesses into a cashier’s check “that was used to fund a business account,” Honig said. Congress a ye…

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by Jerry DeMarco