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A deceased Texas man has his party boat, Rolls Royce, and yacht club membership confiscated by the federal government.
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He secured goods through a COVID PPP loan fraud scheme and demanded $23 million, the federal government claims.
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Between April 2020 and May 2020, he received nearly $1 million in PPP loans and started spending.
A Texas man’s 26-foot party boat, Rolls-Royce and yacht club membership were confiscated by the federal government after he embezzled millions in a COVID-scam scheme, prosecutors said. .
Austin, Texas resident Michael George McQuarn was indicted in late May 2020 and pleaded guilty in federal court in February 2022 to conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud. According to court documents From Monday, as first reported by CourtWatch.
McQuarn has agreed to hand over items purchased as part of the $23 million COVID PPP loan he sought to secure. This included a Rolls-Royce and a sizeable boat.
Prosecutors said McQuarn, who died in October 2022, had been working with several people in an attempt to exploit the PPP loan process that allowed small businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic to secure federal funding to help them survive. They claimed that they worked together to enrich themselves. Business owners could be forgiven of loan principal and interest by the federal government.
McQuarn and his associates were able to secure at least $956,310 of the more than $23 million they demanded, and McQuarn wasted no time in spending that money, prosecutors said.
McQuarn falsified bank documents, made false statements, falsified labor costs, and lied to the Small Business Administration about his employee count. They added that he also stole information from other employers in his plans.
Between April 25, 2020 and May 15, 2020, McQuarn filed ten PPP loans under four different trade names, including one titled “Cool Kids Entertainment Group, LLC,” and was found guilty of collusion. person submitted fraudulent loans through a business titled “Keeping it.” delicious. “
McQuarn purchased a 26-foot Pavati Wake Boat and Wake Boat Trailer for $333,000.00 and, on May 28, 2020, a Rolls Royce Dawn for $241,392.00, federal attorneys wrote in the application.
McQuarn also bought a $10,000 yacht club membership, paid off a 2015 Triumph Bonneville car loan, and dumped the rest of the money into another bank account.
By June 2020, federal agents had caught up with McQuarn and his associates and seized all the money and luxury items raised in the scheme.
Ultimately, McQuarn’s 2015 Triumph Bonneville also became federal property.
Read the original article at business insider