Yahoo Finance, "Encino man sentenced to 11 years in federal prison for pandemic fraud"
Summary
A Los Angeles Times article dated July 20, 2022, carried by Yahoo Finance, reporting that Robert Benlevi, 53, of Encino received a 135-month sentence following a March conviction for bank fraud, money-laundering and making false statements to a financial institution. Citing the U.S. Department of Justice, the article states that in 2020 Benlevi submitted 27 applications for forgivable Paycheck Protection Program loans to four banks on behalf of eight companies Benlevi owned. It reports that each application claimed 100 employees and an average monthly payroll of $400,000. According to the article, Benlevi sought $27 million and received $3 million, which authorities said was spent on personal expenses.
Summary drafted by a model from the document's text below and checked by script against that text before publication. It is a navigation aid, not a reading of what the document proves. Where AI is used
- Captured
- 2026-10-02
Archived web capture. Preserved source — captured from finance.yahoo.com; archived 2026-10-02.
Cite this document
“Yahoo Finance, ‘Encino man sentenced to 11 years in federal prison for pandemic fraud.’”
Original at finance.yahoo.com. Archived at Pandemic Darlings on 2026-10-02, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/yahoo-finance-encino-man-sentenced-to-11-years-in-federal-prison-for-p-4616576a62/
, SHA-256 0296bdf17a137a41c32ad5a3dc4496511762fe883b641597c32667da7ede4b0e.Full text
Encino man sentenced to 11 years in federal prison for pandemic fraud LA Times July 20, 2022 1 min read An Encino man who tried to obtain $27 million in unemployment benefits by falsely claiming his business was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic was sentenced Tuesday to more than 11 years in federal prison. Robert Benlevi, 53, received a 135-month sentence following his March conviction for bank fraud, money-laundering and making false statements to a financial institution, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement. In 2020, Benlevi submitted 27 applications for forgivable loans under the Paycheck Protection Program , prosecutors said. The applications to four banks were made on behalf of eight companies that Benlevi owned. Benlevi claimed that each company had 100 employees and an average monthly payroll of $400,000, "even though he knew that the companies did not have any employees or payroll expenses," the Justice Department said. Benlevi sought $27 million in funding to meet expenses and received $3 million that he spent on personal expenses, authorities said. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times . Terms and Privacy Policy Privacy Dashboard More Info Recommended Stories
File and source
- File
- encino-man-sentenced-11-years-092947813_568c29228cc1e20e.html
- Size
- 1,034,971 bytes
- SHA-256
- 0296bdf17a137a41c32ad5a3dc4496511762fe883b641597c32667da7ede4b0e
- Original
- finance.yahoo.com