A 47-year-old New Jersey man admits to illegally obtaining about $618K in COVID loans by creating phony businesses.
Malak Faltawws, also known as “Mark Andrews,” 47, of Rutherford, pled guilty to fraud and money laundering on Tuesday, according to the United States Attorney’s Office for New Jersey.
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Faltawws scammed the federal Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan programs created to assist business owners suffering economic consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak, according to the criminal indictment.
Faltawws claimed to own 18 firms, according to the indictment.
The prosecutor claimed Faltawws filed false and fraudulent loan applications using shell businesses that did not run any legitimate businesses.
Faltawws also sent false loan applications to at least one legitimate business. Prosecutors claim that in these applications, he fabricated payroll data, gross revenues, and personnel numbers.
Faltawws is also accused of filing fake tax forms.
According to prosecutors, Faltawws applied fraudulently for an Economic Injury Disaster Loan on behalf of Cleo Transportation on July 13, 2020.
According to the indictment, the application fraudulently stated that Cleo had approximately $988,500 in gross revenues, roughly $100,500 in costs of products sold, and approximately 18 workers in the fiscal year before January 31, 2020.
Faltawws received a $149,900 loan from the Small Business Administration on August 4, 2020, due to incorrect information in his application, according to authorities.
The lending programs were created to help small businesses stay afloat during the coronavirus outbreak.
Faltawws is set to be sentenced on October 22.
