24 February 2021
Shashank Rai, a 30-year-old, Texas engineer pleaded guilty for filing fraudulent bank loan applications seeking more than $10 million dollars in forgivable loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration (SBA) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. In his loan application Rai claimed to have 250 employees with an average monthly payroll of $4 million. In fact he did not have any employees working in his purported business. In a second application, Rai sought approximately $3 million in PPP loan facility by fraudulently claiming to have 250 employees with an average monthly payroll of approximately $1.2 million.
The Payroll Protection Program was designed to help struggling businesses and hardworking Americans, not individuals.
The Texas Workforce Commission told the court that it had no records of employee wages having been paid in 2020 by Rai or his purported business, Rai Family LLC. The Texas Comptroller’s Office of Public Accounts told the investigators that Rai Family LLC reported no revenues for the fourth quarter of 2019 or the first quarter of 2020.
Source: The Orange Leader.
