Orange County man who bought luxury cars with COVID relief funds is sentenced to prison.
fraudulently obtained $5 million in pandemic relief loans and then spent the money on lavish vacations, luxury sports cars and his own personal expensesMustafa Qadiri, 42, of Irvine, had obtained the funds by submitting loan applications to the federal Paycheck Protection Program, which Congress created in March 2020 to provide emergency aid to small businesses struggling to survive amid COVID-19 related shutdowns and other business interruptions.
Qadiri filed the applications in May and June of 2020 on behalf of four separate Newport Beach companies, none of which were actually in operation at the time, federal prosecutors said. Among other deceptions, he lied about the companies’ employee numbers, falsified bank balances and created fake tax returns, officials said.
Qadiri pleaded guilty in July 2021 to bank fraud, aggravated identity theft and money laundering. In addition to his prison sentence, he was also fined $20,000 and ordered to pay more than $2.8 million in restitution.Several friends who wrote character references for Qadiri in federal court described him as a caring and generous man who grew up under his mother, an immigrant from Afghanistan, after his father died when he was a child.
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