A Texas business owner who is accused of securing $1.6 million in coronavirus relief funds and investing it on a Lamborghini, a Rolex and strip clubs has been charged with fraud.
The man, Lee Cost III, 29, was anticipated to appear in U.S. District Court in Houston on charges of wire scams, bank scams, making false declarations to a financial institution and other criminal activities, the U.S. attorney general of the United States’s office and the U.S. lawyer’s workplace in Houston said in a joint statement Tuesday.
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Rate is alleged to have actually submitted a deceitful loan application for the Paycheck Defense Program, a federal loan program that has reserved more than $600 billion to assist small businesses having a hard time during the coronavirus pandemic
Federal information show that countless dollars in paycheck defense loans have actually also gone to celebrities like Kanye West and the artist Jeff Koons, the Church of Scientology and Joe Farrell, a billionaire home designer.
A Florida guy, David T. Hines, was implicated last month of getting $4 million in income protection funding and purchasing a 2020 Lamborghini Huracán, valued at $318,000
Federal authorities said Cost got two loans– one for $900,000 and another for $700,000– for two companies that he said had “many” workers and “considerable” payroll expenses, according to his applications.
The businesses had neither, authorities said, and Rate is alleged to have actually invested the money on a Lamborghini Urus, a Rolex watch and a 2020 Ford F-350 pickup. He is likewise accused of spending countless dollars at strip clubs and bars in Houston, the declaration stated.
It wasn’t clear whether Cost got in a plea Tuesday. The Federal Public Protector in Houston, which is representing Rate, didn’t right away respond to an ask for comment.
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