Issaquah man charged in federal court with COVID relief fraud
SEATTLE - An Issaquah man was charged Friday with filing fraudulent bank loan applications seeking more than $1.5 million in forgivable loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration under the CARES Act.
Baoke Zhang, 35, a software engineer, was charged in a federal criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court with wire fraud and bank fraud.
The defendant allegedly submitted false documents in a brazen scheme to acquire over $1.5 million in loan funds made available for legitimate businesses adversely affected by COVID-19, said Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the U.S. Justice Departments Criminal Division.
This defendant tried more than once to defraud the Paycheck Protection Program a program designed to keep people working, said U.S. Attorney Brian T. Moran for the Western District of Washington. I am pleased that the systems designed to detect and deny fraudulent payments caught his scheme before federal funds went out the door.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/smallbusiness/issaquah-man-charged-in-federal-court-with-covid-relief-fraud/ar-BB14twJY?ocid=hplocalnews