NEW YORK (WPIX) – A physician in New York was sentenced to 51 months in jail Friday after he fraudulently obtained greater than $3 million in COVID emergency loans, officers mentioned.
Dr. Konstantinos Zarkadas used the cash to purchase a $1.7 million yacht, lease luxurious cars and get Rolex and Cartier wristwatches, in response to U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace for the Japanese District of New York. He pleaded responsible in November 2021 to catastrophe aid fraud and wire fraud in connection along with his receipt of small enterprise loans beneath the Paycheck Safety Program and Financial Damage Catastrophe Mortgage Program.
“In the present day’s sentence demonstrates there are penalties for many who deal with important authorities packages as money give-a-ways and shamefully search to revenue from an unprecedented public well being disaster,” United States Lawyer Breon Peace mentioned in a Friday press launch. “This Workplace will vigorously prosecute and produce to justice medical professionals just like the defendant and different fraudsters who’re pushed by greed to keep up a lavish way of life on the expense of small companies in respectable want of COVID-19 emergency help.”
Zarkadas, 48, fraudulently utilized for and obtained no less than 11 loans between March and July of 2020, officers mentioned. He then laundered the cash and used it for “extravagant private purchases,” together with a virtually $200,000 down cost on a yacht.
“Due to the investigative work of IRS-CI and the FBI, he’ll sail straight to federal jail as an alternative of onboard his $1.7 million yacht that was illegally bought with CARES Act funds,” mentioned Thomas Fattorusso, Jr., Particular Agent-in-Cost of IRS Prison Investigation (IRS-CI) of New York.
Along with his 51-month sentence, Zarkadas has been ordered to pay roughly $3.5 million in restitution.