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Syed Ali

Defendant

PPP
Type
Person
Role
Defendant
Programs
PPP
Updated

The profile

A Sugar Land, Texas man in the Amir Aqeel PPP ring who, the indictment says, told a borrower trying to return a loan to "use it and then return." He was sentenced in February 2024 to 24 months in prison and $937,499 in restitution.

Identity and role

Syed Ali, 55 at sentencing, of Sugar Land, Texas, was added to United States v. Aqeel, No. 4:20-cr-00583 (S.D. Tex.), by the superseding indictment of December 9, 2021. It charged him with conspiracy to commit wire fraud (18 U.S.C. § 1349), wire fraud and an unlawful monetary transaction. He was arrested in Houston on December 15, 2021, the same week as Hamza Abbas, Khalid Abbas and Abdul Fatani.

The scheme and pandemic-relief role

The superseding indictment describes a ring led by Amir Aqeel that filed more than 80 PPP applications between April and November 2020 with false employee counts and payroll figures. It names two Texas corporations registered to Ali: Faz Inc (2007) and Event Palace, Inc (February 2019). According to the indictment:

  • On or about June 19, 2020, Aqeel and Ali applied for a $375,000 PPP loan for Event Palace. The bank turned it down because it could not verify that Event Palace was an actual company.
  • Ali recruited others for kickbacks. He gave Aqeel information on a company called BZS, which then received a PPP loan of about $454,166. When BZS's owner tried to return the money, Ali told him: "You are getting in trouble and you will get all others in trouble too. Why are you putting them at risk? You got the loan, use it and then return."
  • One money-laundering count concerns an August 4, 2020 transfer involving an account in the name of Lazeeza Restaurant and a loan held in the name of Faz.

These are the indictment's allegations; Ali pleaded guilty to the conspiracy count. His $937,499 in restitution equals the BZS loan ($454,166) plus $483,333, the restitution imposed the same day on Muhammad Anis, for which Anis, Ali and Aqeel are jointly liable.

  • Charged: superseding indictment, December 9, 2021; arrested December 15, 2021.
  • Pleaded guilty: December 20, 2022, to Count 1 (conspiracy to commit wire fraud), before U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen. A money judgment entered May 26, 2023 was marked satisfied on June 7, 2023.
  • Sentenced: February 12, 2024, to 24 months in prison, three years of supervised release and $937,499 in restitution to the SBA, owed jointly with Aqeel (judgment entered February 27, 2024, Doc. 806).

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 February 2024 judgment.

Sources

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