Financial Fraud: Barrie Osborne Was Charged By Indictment With Conspiracy to Commit Wire And Bank Fraud And Loan Fraud Scheme

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&NewLine;<h1 class&equals;"wp-block-heading"><&sol;h1>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>PHILADELPHIA – United States Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams and Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A&period; Polite Jr&period; of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division announced that Barrie Osborne&comma; 76&comma; of Celebration&comma; Florida&comma; was charged by Indictment with with conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud&comma; wire fraud&comma; bank fraud&comma; and conspiracy to commit money laundering in connection with a scheme to fraudulently obtain more than &dollar;7 million in Paycheck Protection Program &lpar;PPP&rpar; loans&comma; Economic Injury Disaster Loans &lpar;EIDL&rpar; and pre-pandemic Small Business Administration &lpar;SBA&rpar; loans&comma; and to launder the proceeds of the illegal scheme&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The Indictment alleges that&comma; beginning in about January 2018 until August 2021&comma; the defendant&comma; a professional tax preparer&comma; conspired with at least eight California-based individuals to apply for SBA&comma; PPP&comma; and EIDL loans on behalf of their respective businesses&period; All of the businesses in question were dormant companies or companies with limited business operations&period; In exchange for fees&comma; Osborne allegedly made the businesses appear to be functioning companies with operations and employees by creating fake documents&comma; including fake bank statements and fictitious tax documents&period; The defendant also provided a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;script” to scheme participants to use in calls with lenders&period; Osborne and the California co-conspirators allegedly obtained over &dollar;7&period;3 million in PPP&comma; EIDL&comma; and SBA loans&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The Indictment further alleges that the defendant created &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;forgiveness plans” which were designed to disguise the fraud proceeds as payroll expenses in order to make it appear that each <a class&equals;"wpil&lowbar;keyword&lowbar;link" href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;fraudswatch&period;com&sol;category&sol;loans&sol;" title&equals;"loan" data-wpil-keyword-link&equals;"linked" data-wpil-monitor-id&equals;"314">loan<&sol;a> recipient was meeting the SBA requirement to devote a percentage of the PPP funds to payroll&period;&nbsp&semi; This increased the likelihood that each loan recipient – including one of the defendant’s own companies &&num;8211&semi; would qualify for loan forgiveness&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;PPP&comma; SBA and EIDL funds are intended to help American small-businesses continue paying their employees&comma; even if revenues have dropped dramatically&comma;” said U&period;S&period; Attorney Williams&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Thieves who attempt to take these funds are taking advantage of others’ misfortune – ripping them off while also ripping off all taxpayers who fund the program&period; As alleged&comma; Osborne led a conspiracy to fraudulently obtain &dollar;7 million in funds that could have helped struggling businesses and individuals&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>On May 17&comma; 2021&comma; the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud&period; The Task Force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with administering relief programs to prevent fraud by&comma; among other methods&comma; augmenting and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms&comma; identifying resources and techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes&comma; and sharing and harnessing information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts&period; For more information on the department’s response to the pandemic&comma; please visit&nbsp&semi;<a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;justice&period;gov&sol;coronavirus">https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;justice&period;gov&sol;coronavirus<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>This case was investigated by the Small Business Association Office of Inspector General&comma; IRS-Criminal Investigation Philadelphia&comma; Homeland Securitu Investigations’ Philadelphia Field Office&comma; and the FBI’s Philadelphia Field Office&comma; and is being prosecuted by trial attorneys David A&period; Stier and Patrick B&period; Gushue of the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section and Assistant United States Attorney Judy G&period; Smith for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud &lpar;NCDF&rpar; Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at&nbsp&semi;<a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;justice&period;gov&sol;disaster-fraud&sol;ncdf-disaster-complaint-form">https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;justice&period;gov&sol;disaster-fraud&sol;ncdf-disaster-complaint-form<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>An indictment&comma; information&comma; or criminal complaint is an accusation&period; A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h2 class&equals;"wp-block-heading">Florida Tax Preparer Charged in Connection with &dollar;7 Million Loan Fraud Scheme<&sol;h2>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>PHILADELPHIA – United States Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams and Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A&period; Polite Jr&period; of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division announced that Barrie Osborne&comma; 76&comma; of Celebration&comma; Florida&comma; was charged by Indictment with with conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud&comma; wire fraud&comma; bank fraud&comma; and conspiracy to commit money laundering in connection with a scheme to fraudulently obtain more than &dollar;7 million in Paycheck Protection Program &lpar;PPP&rpar; loans&comma; Economic Injury Disaster Loans &lpar;EIDL&rpar; and pre-pandemic Small Business Administration &lpar;SBA&rpar; loans&comma; and to launder the proceeds of the illegal scheme&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The Indictment alleges that&comma; beginning in about January 2018 until August 2021&comma; the defendant&comma; a professional tax preparer&comma; conspired with at least eight California-based individuals to apply for SBA&comma; PPP&comma; and EIDL loans on behalf of their respective businesses&period; All of the businesses in question were dormant companies or companies with limited business operations&period; In exchange for fees&comma; Osborne allegedly made the businesses appear to be functioning companies with operations and employees by creating fake documents&comma; including fake bank statements and fictitious tax documents&period; The defendant also provided a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;script” to scheme participants to use in calls with lenders&period; Osborne and the California co-conspirators allegedly obtained over &dollar;7&period;3 million in PPP&comma; EIDL&comma; and SBA loans&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The Indictment further alleges that the defendant created &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;forgiveness plans” which were designed to disguise the fraud proceeds as payroll expenses in order to make it appear that each loan recipient was meeting the SBA requirement to devote a percentage of the PPP funds to payroll&period;&nbsp&semi; This increased the likelihood that each loan recipient – including one of the defendant’s own companies &&num;8211&semi; would qualify for loan forgiveness&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;PPP&comma; SBA and EIDL funds are intended to help American small-businesses continue paying their employees&comma; even if revenues have dropped dramatically&comma;” said U&period;S&period; Attorney Williams&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Thieves who attempt to take these funds are taking advantage of others’ misfortune – ripping them off while also ripping off all taxpayers who fund the program&period; As alleged&comma; Osborne led a conspiracy to fraudulently obtain &dollar;7 million in funds that could have helped struggling businesses and individuals&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>On May 17&comma; 2021&comma; the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud&period; The Task Force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with administering relief programs to prevent fraud by&comma; among other methods&comma; augmenting and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms&comma; identifying resources and techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes&comma; and sharing and harnessing information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts&period; For more information on the department’s response to the pandemic&comma; please visit&nbsp&semi;<a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;justice&period;gov&sol;coronavirus">https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;justice&period;gov&sol;coronavirus<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>This case was investigated by the Small Business Association Office of Inspector General&comma; IRS-Criminal Investigation Philadelphia&comma; Homeland Securitu Investigations’ Philadelphia Field Office&comma; and the FBI’s Philadelphia Field Office&comma; and is being prosecuted by trial attorneys David A&period; Stier and Patrick B&period; Gushue of the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section and Assistant United States Attorney Judy G&period; Smith for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud &lpar;NCDF&rpar; Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at&nbsp&semi;<a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;justice&period;gov&sol;disaster-fraud&sol;ncdf-disaster-complaint-form">https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;justice&period;gov&sol;disaster-fraud&sol;ncdf-disaster-complaint-form<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>An indictment&comma; information&comma; or criminal complaint is an accusation&period; A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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