Tag Archives: COVID 19

Broward Sheriff’s Office Deputy Convicted At Trial Of COVID-19 Relief Fraud

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From the US Attorney’s Office Southern District of Florida:

MIAMI – On March 5, a federal jury in Fort Lauderdale convicted a Broward Sheriff’s Office (BSO) deputy of two counts of wire fraud for her COVID-19 relief fraud scheme. 

 

In 2021, Stephanie Diane Smith, 53, of Sunrise, Florida, applied for and received two PPP loans for herself as a sole proprietor doing business as Children 1st Basketball Training and Agape Smith Vending, respectively, based upon materially false information about each business’s total amount of gross income for the year 2019, including a falsified IRS tax form submitted with each application. Smith also sought and received forgiveness of both fraudulently obtained PPP loans, which totaled over $31,000 in principal and interest. During the period of the scheme, Smith was employed as a deputy sheriff in BSO’s Department of Law Enforcement.

 

The sentencing is scheduled for May 29 before U.S. District Judge James I. Cohn.  Smith faces up to 20 years in prison for each wire fraud conviction. The court will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

 

U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Markenzy Lapointe; Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey B. Veltri, FBI, Miami Field Office; Special Agent in Charge Brian Tucker, Eastern Region, Office of Inspector General for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony of BSO made the announcement.

 

FBI Miami, FRB-OIG and BSO investigated this case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys David Snider and Trevor Jones are prosecuting it. Assistant U.S. Attorney Darren Grove is handling asset forfeiture.

 

On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. The Task Force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with administering relief programs to prevent fraud by, among other methods, augmenting and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts. For more information on the department’s response to the pandemic, please visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus.

 

On September 15, 2022, the Attorney General selected the Southern District of Florida’s U.S. Attorney’s Office to head one of three national COVID-19 Fraud Strike Force Teams. The Department of Justice established the Strike Force to enhance existing efforts to combat and prevent COVID-19 related financial fraud.  The Strike Force combines law enforcement and prosecutorial resources and focuses on large-scale, multistate pandemic relief fraud perpetrated by criminal organizations and transnational actors, as well as those who committed multiple instances of pandemic relief fraud. The Strike Force uses prosecutor-led and data analyst-driven teams to identify and bring to justice those who stole pandemic relief funds. Additional information regarding the Strike Force may be found athttps://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-covid-19-fraud-strike-force-teams.

Dale Holness Campaign Guru Omar Smith Pleads Guilty To Federal Fraud Charges

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Omar Smith

Omar Miguel Smith, a longtime political operative of former Broward County Commissioner Dale Holness, pled guilty on Friday to Federal charges related to COVID-19 relief fraud. REDBROWARD first reported on the suspicious Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan Smith received last year. Smith obtained $212,500 for his single person company, A Star For I, Inc.

Smith faces up to thirty years in prison.

Here’s the press release from the United States Attorney’s Office:

Miami, Fl. –Today 42-year-old Royal Palm Beach, Florida resident Omar Smith pled guilty in South Florida federal court to lying on a coronavirus relief loan application and fraudulently obtaining hundreds of thousands of dollars intended to help small businesses financially survive the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to the information to which he pled guilty, in June 2020, Smith applied for a $212,500 forgivable, federally guaranteed Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan on behalf of A Star For I, Inc., a Florida company that he owned. It is alleged that to justify the requested loan amount, Smith claimed in the on-line loan application, and through supporting fraudulent payroll tax forms, that his company employed 30 people and spent an average of $85,000 each month on payroll. In fact, A Star For I, Inc had zero employees and no payroll expenses. A bank in Utah approved A Star For I, Inc.’s PPP loan application based on the lies and wired $212,500 to the company’s bank account in Florida, says the information.

Once the money hit the bank account in July 2020, Smith spent the next few months creating a paper trail to make it appear as if A Star For I, Inc. in fact had employees and was spending the PPP money on legitimate, approved expenses, it is alleged. According to the information, Smith issued checks from the company bank account made out to others who did little or no work for A Star For I, Inc.

Smith faces up to thirty years in prison and a fine of the greater of twice the gross gain or twice the gross loss or $1,000,000. United States District Judge Robin Rosenberg will sentence Smith on a date and time to be announced.

Smith has worked on political campaigns in South Florida.

Juan Antonio Gonzalez, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Jay Bernardo, Acting Special Agent in Charge, FBI Miami, announced the charges.

FBI Miami investigated this case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Kaplan is prosecuting it.