WASHINGTON (Talk1370.com) -- A man from northeast Texas has been charged with fraud in connection with coronavirus relief loans tied to the CARES Act.
Attorneys for the U.S. Department of Justice say 32-year old Samuel Yates of Maud, just southeast of Texarkana, allegedly filed bank loan applications fraudulently seeking more than $5 million in forgivable loans under the Paycheck Protection Program.
Yates is facing two counts of wire fraud. The indictment alleges that in the loan applications, Yates claimed to have over 400 employees earning wages when, in fact, no employees worked for his purported business.
According to court documents unsealed Friday, Yates allegedly made two fraudulent applications to two different lenders for PPP loans. In the first application, Yates allegedly sought $5 million in PPP loan proceeds by fraudulently claiming to have over 400 employees with an average monthly payroll of more than $2 million. In the second application, Yates claimed to employ over 100 individuals and was able to obtain a loan over $500,000.
With each application, Yates submitted a list of purported employees that he obtained from a publicly available random name generator on the internet. He also submitted forged tax documents with each application.
Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 and the CARES Act can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud Hotline at 866-720-5721.