US authorities have found California resident Oumar Sissoko guilty of COVID-19 relief fund fraud. Sissoko used hundreds of thousands of dollars from the federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) for impermissible expenses after fraudulently procuring a relief loan of $7.25 million in the name of his pothole repair business called Road Doctor California LLC.
In April 2020, Sissoko submitted a PPP loan application claiming that Road Doctor was hiring 450 full-time employees. He claimed to have average monthly payroll expenses of $2.9 million. Sissoko explicitly indicated that the funds were to be used to maintain payroll and make other company-related payments.
However, after receiving the loan amount in May 2020, Sissoko misappropriated hundreds of thousands of dollars of the proceeds to use for personal and impermissible expenses. These included purchasing a Mercedes-Benz, buying an Apple computer, making a non-refundable down payment to purchase another company, etc. Sissoko will receive his sentence on July 18, 2022.
Source: US Department of Justice