He acquired $149,000 in his account final yr, and he used a big portion of it on a Benz.
KINGSLAND, Ga. — A South Georgia pastor and tax preparer is headed to jail for wire fraud after spending most of a fraudulently obtained COVID mortgage on a brand new automobile.
In response to a information launch, 45-year-old Mack Knight is dealing with as much as 20 years in jail, substantial monetary penalties, a number of years of probation… and he needed to forfeit the Benz.
Courtroom paperwork say Knight utilized for EIDL loans on behalf of Camden County companies. These mortgage purposes stated Knight owned a number of companies with a whole bunch of 1000’s of {dollars} in income earlier than the pandemic.
He acquired $149,000 from the Small Enterprise Administration, and he used most of it on a Mercedes-Benz S-Class sedan.
Along with his responsible plea, he is admitting these mortgage purposes have been fraudulent and that he despatched faux data to the SBA, together with tax paperwork and altered financial institution statements.
“COVID-19 catastrophe reduction loans have been issued by the federal government to assist companies struggling to outlive throughout a pandemic, to not use for private pleasures like Knight used them for,” stated Philip Wislar, Appearing Particular Agent in Cost of FBI Atlanta.
Anybody with details about allegations of tried fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Division of Justice’s Nationwide Heart for Catastrophe Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721.