United States v. Muhammad Noor Ul Ain Atta

Case summary

Muhammad Noor Ul Ain Atta, 39, of Corona, pleaded guilty to a two-count information charging wire fraud and laundering of monetary instruments. The charges relate to a scheme to submit false loan applications that brought him more than $6.6 million in Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan funds.¹

According to his plea agreement, Atta submitted 11 fraudulent PPP loan applications for seven shell companies, misrepresenting employee counts and average monthly payroll. The agreement says he falsely certified he would use the proceeds for permissible business purposes, backed by false tax and payroll documentation. He received $6,643,540 in loan proceeds even though none of his companies were legitimate relief recipients at the time, then laundered the proceeds to bank accounts in the United States and Pakistan.¹

One loan detailed in the plea agreement involved a company called Envisioning Future Inc., for which Atta sought $1,267,714, falsely claiming 73 employees and certifying the funds would go toward payroll and other business expenses. The application, filed April 10, 2020, was supported by falsified federal tax returns and false payroll data. About a month later, Envisioning Future received $1,267,140 in proceeds; the next day, Atta wired most of it to his mother's bank account. In June 2020, he wired $1.3 million, the majority of which came from the Envisioning Future loan, to a financial institution in Islamabad, Pakistan. According to the plea agreement, the wire transfer details included a note that the wire was "family support."¹

The U.S. Attorney's Office and the Justice Department's Criminal Division announced the plea. Announcing with them were the Office of Inspector General for the Federal Reserve Board and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, IRS Criminal Investigation, the SBA Office of Inspector General and the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam P. Schleifer of the Major Frauds Section and Trial Attorneys Jennifer L. Bilinkas and Matthew F. Sullivan of the Justice Department's Fraud Section are prosecuting the case. U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson scheduled a sentencing hearing for October 17.¹

Notes

1. U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California, "Riverside County Man Pleads Guilty to Federal Criminal Charges for Fraudulently Obtaining $6.6 Million in COVID-Relief Business Loans" (original), August 2, 2022. ↩₁ ↩₂ ↩₃ ↩₄

Summary written from the documents on this page; every sentence is sourced.