SUGAR LAND, Texas — Four residents of Fort Bend County face federal charges in a $35M COVID-19 relief fraud case, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Hamza Abbas, 29, Khalid Abbas, 55, Abdul Fatani, 55, all from Richmond, and Syed Ali, 53, of Sugar Land, are charged with wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Khalid Abbas, Fatani and Ali are also charged with money laundering.
A total of 15 people across two states have now been charged in the massive conspiracy. Almost all of them live in the Houston area.
The other suspects named in the indictment are Amir Aqeel, 53, and Pardeep Basra, 52, both of Houston; Rifat Bajwa, 53, Richmond; Mayer Misak, 41, Cypress; Mauricio Navia, 42, Katy; Richard Reuth, 58, Spring; and Siddiq Azeemuddin, 42, Naperville, Illinois.
If convicted, the defendants face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison per count of wire fraud and 10 years for each money laundering conviction.
Azeemuddin and Reuth have pleaded guilty for their roles in the scheme but haven't been sentenced yet.
Four others - Abdul Farahshah, 70, Jesus Acosta Perez, 31, and Bijan Rajabi, 68, all of Houston; and Raheel Malik, 41, of Sugar Land - had also pleaded guilty.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, the ring fraudulently obtained and laundered millions of dollars in forgivable Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans. The loans were meant for businesses as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
According to court documents, Hamza Abbas, Khalid Abbas, Fatani and Ali conspired with others to submit more than 80 false and fraudulent PPP loan applications. They allegedly falsified the number of employees and the average monthly payroll expenses of the applicant businesses. In total, the defendants sought over $35 million in PPP loan funds. They actually received about $18 million in PPP loan proceeds, according to the charges.
The indictment alleges they laundered a portion of the fraudulent loan proceeds by writing checks to fake employees from companies that received PPP loans. The feds say those checks went to some of the defendants and their relatives.
Since the inception of the CARES Act, the government has prosecuted over 150 defendants in more than 95 criminal cases and has seized over $75 million in cash. They've also seized numerous real estate properties and luxury items purchased with the proceeds.
Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.