A Moreno Valley man who works as a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer has been arrested for alleged pandemic-related fraud.
The United States Department of Justice said Amer Aldarawsheh, 45, faces five counts of wire fraud after he “fraudulently obtained nearly $150,000 in COVID-19 pandemic business-relief loan funds for two of his sham businesses.”
Those businesses — Nahar Enterprises Inc., a San Bernardino-based trucking and freight company, and Ameral, an automotive repair company — were the subject of “false statements” Aldarawsheh made to the Small Business Administration while he was seeking COVID-19-relief loans.
Despite neither company having “substantial business or employees,” Aldarawsheh received the loans, which “were supposed to be used by the recipient to only pay certain authorized business expenses,” the DOJ said.
“Instead, Aldarawsheh knowingly misappropriated and misused the … funds he received from the SBA for his own personal benefit,” including nearly $150,000 that was wired from the SBA to an account controlled by Aldarawsheh, the DOJ said.
Aldarawsheh was arrested Wednesday and pleaded not guilty to all charges that afternoon.
He was released on $30,000 bail and is due back in court on June 16.
If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in federal prison on each fraud count.
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