Authorities said this week that a U.S. Customs and Border Protection official was arrested by allegedly using two fake businesses to illegally demand and received nearly $150,000 from a Covid-19 pandemic relief program targeting small business owners.
Amer Aldarawsheh, 45, was indicted on Wednesday on five counts of wire fraud. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, he was accused of intentionally misleading the U.S. Small Business Administration and unfortunate loan funds.
He pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors said in 2020 and 2021, the Moreno Valley man represented two businesses: Nahar Enterprises Inc. applied for loans to the SBA Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program, which is described as a trucking and freight company based in San Bernardino; and Ameral, an alleged auto repair company.
However, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, investigators later found that there was no company “a large number of business or employees.”
“Aldarawsheh intentionally misappropriated and abused the EIDL funds he received from the SBA,” the federal prosecutor pointed out in the statement.
Aldarawsheh, who faces a federal prison sentence of up to 20 years, was released at $30,000, authorities said. Representatives of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not immediately respond to a request for comment on their employment status.
The Small Business Administration estimates that in order to distribute relief faster, it provides more than $200 billion in potentially fraudulent funding through its COVID-19-19-era disaster loan program.
