Utah Restaurant Owner Sentenced to Federal Prison for COVID Fraud (Press Release, August 15, 2024)

Summary

A press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Utah, dated August 15, 2024, announcing that Giuseppe Mirenda of Salt Lake City was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Howard C. Nelson, Jr. to 12 months' and one day imprisonment, three years' supervised release and a fine of $250,000. Mirenda pleaded guilty in February 2024 to two counts of conversion of government property. The release states that Mirenda, a co-owner of five Utah restaurants and Sicilia Restaurant Management, obtained $1,889,400 in Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) funds and used them for personal benefit, including over $1.1 million toward houses in Utah and Nevada. It states that Mirenda repaid about $680,000 and that the United States recovered approximately $1,251,469.29 from the forced sale of the two homes.

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PRESS RELEASE



Utah Restaurant Owner
Sentenced to Federal Prison for
COVID Fraud
Thursday, August 15, 2024


For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Utah


Popular Italian-restaurant owner stole $1.88M in COVID relief
funds

Salt Lake City, Utah – A Utah restaurant owner who obtained over $1.88 million by
defrauding the COVID-19 Relief program was sentenced today to 12 months’ and one
day imprisonment.

Giuseppe Mirenda, 29, of Salt Lake City, Utah, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge
Howard C. Nelson, Jr. after pleading guilty in February 2024 to two counts of conversion
of government property. In addition to his term of imprisonment, Mirenda was
sentenced to three years’ supervised release, and a fine of $250,000.

According to court documents and statements made at the change of plea hearing,
Mirenda, a co-owner of five Utah restaurants and Sicilia Restaurant Management,
fraudulently applied for and signed agreements for six Economic Injury Disaster Loans
(EIDL loans) between March 2020 and June 2020. In 2021, Mirenda also applied for
another $520,000 in EIDL loans, but those loans were denied. Under the CARES Act, EIDL
loans were for small businesses struggling from the economic effects of the COVID-19
pandemic. In the EIDL loan applications, Mirenda represented and agreed that the loan
proceeds would be used solely as working capital to alleviate economic injury caused by
the pandemic, when in fact he used the loan money for his own personal benefit.
Mirenda also misrepresented the citizenship status of his co-owners to improperly
obtain the loans.
In total, Mirenda unlawfully obtained $1,889,400 in EIDL loan funds. In less than a year,
he used over $1.1 million of the fraudulently obtained funds to buy a house in West
Jordan, Utah and Las Vegas, Nevada. Mirenda also misused at least another $81,781 in
EIDL loan funds to buy luxury cars, including a BMW M3 and a Jaguar F-PACE, and
$39,000 in cryptocurrency.

Mirenda repaid about $680,000 of the EIDL funds. The United States also recovered
approximately $1,251,469.29 from the seizure of the profits made from the forced sale
of the two homes in Utah and Nevada.

United States Attorney Trina A. Higgins for the District of Utah made the announcement.

The Utah Federal COVID-19 Fraud Strike Force is investigating the case, which includes
Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the
Office of Inspector General’s U.S. Small Business Administration – Office of Inspector
General (SBA-OIG), Department of Defense (DOD), U.S. Department of Housing and
Urban Development (HUD), U.S. Department of Labor – Office of Inspector General
(DOL-OIG), and the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA). The
public is encouraged to share information about the abuse of the Paycheck Protection
Program or other SBA programs by submitting a complaint here.

Assistant United States Attorney Todd C. Bouton of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the
District of Utah prosecuted the 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 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 and https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus/comb
atingfraud.

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.


Contact
Felicia Martinez
Public Affairs Specialist
Felicia.martinez@usdoj.gov
(801) 325-3237
USAO-UT | Facebook | X | YouTube| Linkedin|

Updated August 16, 2024

Topics
CORONAVIRUS

SECURITIES, COMMODITIES, & INVESTMENT FRAUD


Components
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
Office of the Inspector General
USAO - Utah


Press Release Number: 24-97


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