Two Venezuelan men living in South Florida with Temporary Protected Status have been charged in a scheme that defrauded the U.S. government's COVID-19 relief program out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, authorities said.
Freddy Urribarri, 42, and Mairilin Munoz 39, were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida said Tuesday.
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WATCH HEREUrribarri and Munoz were granted TPS and living in Dania Beach at the time of their arrests, authorities said.
According to an indictment, Urribarri and Munoz conspired with each other to commit fraud by submitting false Paycheck Protection Program loan applications for COVID-19 era relief money meant to help struggling small business owners financially survive the pandemic.
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The pair submitted false and fraudulent tax documents in applications and used a company they controlled as president and vice president in the applications but inflated the company's income and number of employees, prosecutors said.
As a result, the lender approved a loan of about $438,000, and once the men received the money they engaged in a scheme to conceal the nature of the funds, authorities said.
They also submitted false and fraudulent tax documents in support of a PPP loan forgiveness application, authorities said.
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Munoz also engaged in financial transactions over $10,000 using proceeds of the fraud, prosecutors said.
