Pennsylvania, USA residents Darryl Corradini and Vicki Hackenberg have pleaded guilty to laundering hundreds of thousands of illicit funds. Notably, around $300,000 of the laundered funds came from the Small Business Administration COVID-19 relief provided as part of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).
Corradini and Hackenberg created a shell corporation called CGM Realty LLC for their co-conspirators. They further used fake documents to open bank accounts and a Bitcoin trading account in the name of this shell company. Corradini and Hackenberg also helped their co-conspirators to illicitly procure around $135,000. An additional $296,000 were sourced from a PPP loan using fake documents about CGM Realty LLC’s employee payroll obligations, and how the funds were going to be used for approved purposes. In reality, there were no employees or legitimate business operations at CGM Realty LLC. The co-conspirators then used over $350,000 to purchase Bitcoins, while paying Corradini and Hackenberg several thousand dollars for their help.
Corradini and Hackenberg will forfeit several checks and pay over $430,000 in restitution towards resolving this case.
Source: US Department of Justice