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Nishant Patel

Defendant

Type
Person
Role
Defendant
Updated

The profile

The manager of a Houston trucking company that got a $474,993 PPP loan on false payroll figures; he supplied about 195 fake payroll checks, paid Amir Aqeel a $182,849 kickback and was sentenced to 24 months in prison in January 2024.

Identity and role

Nishant Patel, 41 at sentencing, of Houston, was charged in United States v. Aqeel, No. 4:20-cr-00583 (S.D. Tex.), by a one-count criminal information filed September 12, 2023. Four other men were charged the same day: Ammas Uddin, Arham Uddin, Harjeet Singh and Muhammad Anis. The ring's leader, Amir Aqeel, had been indicted in November 2020.

The scheme and pandemic-relief role

Patel's plea agreement sets out his part. He was the manager of Flash Trucking LLC, a Texas company. On or about June 29, 2020, Aqeel applied for a PPP loan for Flash with false figures for its number of employees and average monthly payroll. A lender authorized about $474,993. Patel, Aqeel and others then wrote checks to people posing as Flash employees and cashed them at a check-cashing store controlled by members of the conspiracy, so that the loan would look forgivable and the payroll would match the application.

According to the plea agreement, Patel supplied about 195 fake payroll checks totaling about $241,497.65, paid Aqeel a kickback of about $182,849.22 and made about $292,133.93 from the scheme. The restitution the court later ordered, $474,993, is the full amount of the Flash loan.

  • Charged: criminal information, September 12, 2023, with one count of conspiracy under 18 U.S.C. § 371; released on a $50,000 unsecured bond at his initial appearance on October 2, 2023.
  • Pleaded guilty: October 2, 2023, before U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen (plea agreement, Doc. 600); money judgment entered the same day (Doc. 602).
  • Sentenced: January 4, 2024, to 24 months in prison, three years of supervised release and $474,993 in restitution to the SBA, owed jointly with Aqeel and Mauricio Navia (judgment entered January 9, 2024, Doc. 757).

Where they are now (2025–2026)

The court allowed him to report to the Bureau of Prisons on his own. We found no public record of him after the January 2024 judgment.

Sources

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