Feds seized a party boat, a Rolls Royce, and a motorcycle from a man accused of using COVID loans to buy his way into a Texas yacht club
Alex Goy
- A deceased Texas man had his party boat, Rolls Royce, and yacht club membership seized by the feds.
- He secured the goods through a COVID PPP loan fraud scheme, seeking $23 million, feds alleged.
- Between April 2020 and May 2020, he received almost $1 million in PPP loans and started spending.
A Texas man's 26-foot party boat, Rolls Royce, and yacht club membership were repossessed by the federal government after he had embezzled millions in a COVID fraud 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 a count of conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud, according to court filings from Monday first reported by CourtWatch.
McQuarn agreed to hand over the items he bought with some of the $23 million in COVID PPP loans he tried to secure, which included a Rolls Royce and a sizable boat.
Prosecutors alleged that McQuarn, who died in October 2022, worked together with a few people to enrich themselves, attempting to game the PPP loan process which allowed small businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic to secure federal funds to stay afloat. Business owners were able to have the principal and interest on the loans forgiven by the federal government.
McQuarn and his associates were able to secure at least $956,310 of the over $23 million that they had requested, and McQuarn wasted no time using the money, prosecutors said.
McQuarn fabricated bank documents, made false statements, and faked payroll expenses, lying to the Small Business Administration about the amount of employees he had. They added that he also stole information from other employers in his scheme.
Between April 25, 2020, and May 15, 2020, McQuarn submitted 10 PPP loans under 4 different business names, including one titled "Cool Kids Entertainment Group, LLC," while his co-conspirator submitted fraudulent loans through a business titled "Keeping it Tasty."
McQuarn used $333,000.00 to purchase of a 26-foot Pavati Wake Boat and a Wake Boat Trailer, and on May 28, 2020, he purchased a Rolls Royce Dawn for $241,392.00, federal lawyers wrote in the filing.
McQuarn also purchased a $10,000 yacht club membership and paid off his car loan for a 2015 Triumph Bonneville, and dumped the rest of the money into different bank accounts.
By June 2020, federal investigators had caught up to McQuarn and his associates, seizing all of the money and luxury items that they had amassed in their scheme.
Ultimately, McQuarn's 2015 Triumph Bonneville also became the property of the federal government.
from Business Insider https://ift.tt/gtG5O0u
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