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Proprietor of in style Utah restaurant sentenced for stealing $1.8M in COVID aid cash

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SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — A Utah restauranteur and part-owner of the Sicilia Restaurant Administration firm has been sentenced to a 12 months in jail after defrauding the U.S. authorities’s COVID-19 Aid program of over $1.8 million.

Giuseppe Mirenda, 29, of Salt Lake Metropolis, was sentenced after pleading responsible in Feb. to 2 counts of conversion of presidency property. Along with his imprisonment, Mirenda was sentenced to a few years’ supervised launch and a high-quality of $250,000.

Mirenda, a co-owner of 5 Utah eating places underneath Sicilia Restaurant Administration — Sicilia Mia 1, Sicilia Mia 2, Sicilia Mia LLC, Antica Sicilia LLC, and Bella Sicilia LLC — reportedly fraudulently utilized for and signed agreements on six Financial Damage Catastrophe Loans (EIDL loans) between March 2020 and June 2020.

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In 2021, Mirenda utilized for one more $520,000 in EIDL loans, however was denied, officers mentioned.

What are EIDL loans? Below the CARES Act, they had been meant for small companies struggling from the financial results of the COVID-19 pandemic. Mirenda reportedly agreed that the mortgage would solely be used for restaurant capital, however as a substitute used the cash for his personal private profit.

He additionally misrepresented the citizenship standing of his co-owners to get the loans, based on the U.S. Dept. of Justice.

“In whole, Mirenda unlawfully obtained $1,889,400 in EIDL mortgage funds,” a press launch from the DOJ states. “In lower than a 12 months, he used over $1.1 million of the fraudulently obtained funds to purchase a home in West Jordan, Utah and Las Vegas, Nevada. Mirenda additionally misused at the very least one other $81,781 in EIDL mortgage funds to purchase luxurious vehicles, together with a BMW M3 and a Jaguar F-PACE, and $39,000 in cryptocurrency.”

Mirena reportedly paid again $680,000 of the EIDL funds, whereas the U.S. authorities recovered one other nearly $1.3 million from the seizure of the income he constituted of the “pressured sale of the 2 properties in Utah and Nevada,” the discharge states.

The Utah Federal COVID-19 Fraud Strike Pressure investigated this case.

No additional data is offered presently.

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