NEWARK, N.J. (1010 WINS) -- A New Jersey man on Wednesday was sentenced to prison for defrauding several financial institutions to illegally obtain over $2 million in COVID-19 federal funding.
John Jhong, 54, pleaded guilty to one count each of bank fraud, money laundering and misuse of a Social Security numbers in December 2022.
From April through October 2020, Jhong used a series of limited liability companies to submit numerous fraudulent loan applications in which he sought more than $15 million in federal pandemic aid and illegally obtained $2 million.
Jhong used fake tax returns, falsified government forms, and used Social Security numbers of people that had been deceased for over a decade in support of the fraudulent applications.
Authorities also said Jhong used the money on personal expenses.
Additionally John was sentenced to three years of supervised release and was ordered to pay back $2.13 million.
"As the nation was struggling with the damaging effects of the pandemic, Mr. Jhong callously attempted to deceive lenders and fraudulently secure Paycheck Protection Program loans by knowingly misusing several Social Security numbers," said Gail Ennis, Inspector General for the Social Security Administration. "I thank the investigating agencies and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for their efforts in holding Mr. Jhong accountable for these crimes."