30-year-old Lee Price III of Houston, Texas, was recently sentenced to a total of 110 months in prison after the Department of Justice uncovered a scheme he concocted to fraudulently obtain and launder funds from over $1.6 million in Paycheck Protection Program loans under the CARES Act.
According to the Department of Justice, Price had applied for one loan using the name of a deceased individual and also spent PPP funds on a Ford F-350 truck, a Lamborghini Urus, a Rolex watch, and paying off a loan on a residential property, as well as additional purchases.
In all, Price was found to have submitted fraudulent PPP loan applications to a total of two different lenders on behalf of the following three different entities:
713 Construction LLC
Price Enterprise Holdings LLC
*Price Logistic Services LLC
Back in September, he pleaded guilty to charges of money laundering and wire fraud.
Through these specific applications, Price had requested a total of over $2.6 million before obtaining approximately $1.6 million. To achieve this, Price misrepresented the total number of employees and payroll expenses in each application. He also claimed in one application that Price Enterprises had a total of 50 employees and an average monthly payroll of $375,000 even though, according to court documents, there were actually no employees on payroll.
Furthermore, Price also submitted fraudulent tax records and additional materials to support the applications, such as a counterfeit Texas driver’s license in the name of a resident from the state of Ohio who had passed away shortly before one of the applications had been submitted.
According to court records, Price was ordered to forfeit the car, truck, and watch, and the Department of Justice also seized more than $700,000 of unspent funds.