Albany Man Sentenced to Prison for Pandemic Relief Fraud
Summary
A July 25, 2024 press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of New York announcing that Senior United States District Judge Frederick J. Scullin, Jr. sentenced Scott Solomon, 38, of Albany to 13 months in prison and 3 years of supervised release after he pleaded guilty to two counts of bank fraud. Solomon was ordered to pay $163,993 in restitution and forfeit the same amount. The release states that in 2020 he obtained PPP loans totaling $163,993 for two Saratoga Springs restaurants he had once operated, neither of which was operating, using false and forged tax documents and false employee and payroll figures. It says he also obtained forgiveness of one $87,500 loan by falsely claiming the money went to payroll.
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“Albany Man Sentenced to Prison for Pandemic Relief Fraud.”
Original at www.justice.gov. Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/2024-07-25-albany-man-sentenced-to-prison-for-pandemic-relief-fraud-fc-31506b620c/
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ALBANY, NEW YORK – Scott Solomon, age 38, of Albany, was sentenced today to 13 months in prison, to be followed by 3 years of supervised release, for defrauding a loan program meant for businesses struggling with the financial effects of the coronavirus pandemic. United States Attorney Carla B. Freedman and Craig L. Tremaroli, Special Agent in Charge of the Albany Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), made the announcement. In previously pleading guilty to two counts of bank fraud, Solomon admitted that in 2020, he fraudulently applied for and obtained Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans for two restaurants in Saratoga Springs, New York, that he had once operated. Solomon submitted false and forged tax documents as part of each loan application, and lied about each restaurant’s number of employees and payroll. At the time Solomon applied for the loans, neither restaurant was operational, and Solomon used the loaned funds, totaling $163,993, in ways he knew were prohibited by the PPP. Solomon also fraudulently obtained forgiveness of one of the loans, in the amount of $87,500, by falsely telling the lender that he used the loaned funds for payroll. PPP loans, which were issued by financial institutions in 2020 and 2021 and guaranteed by the U.S. Small Business Administration, needed to be used by the borrowing business only on certain, permissible expenses, such as payroll costs, interest on mortgages, rent, and utilities. Senior United States District Judge Frederick J. Scullin, Jr. also ordered Solomon to pay $163,993 in restitution and to forfeit that same amount as proceeds of his crimes. Solomon has two prior felony convictions for grand larceny, as well as a prior misdemeanor conviction for possession of a forged instrument. The FBI investigated this case and Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Barnett prosecuted this case. On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. The Task Force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with administering relief programs to prevent fraud by, among other methods, augmenting and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts. For more information on the Department’s response to the pandemic, please visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus . Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at: https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form .
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