A Winchester man has been charged with allegedly filing fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program loan applications for more than $13 million.
Elijah Majak Buoi, 38, was charged in a criminal complaint on Monday with wire fraud, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office.
According to the statement, Buoi is the president and CEO of an information technology services company, Sosuda Tech LLC. Buoi allegedly submitted fraudulent applications between April and June for more than $13 million in PPP loans to four SBA-approved lenders.
In these applications, Buoi misrepresented the number of employees and payroll expenses and falsely certified that the United States was the primary residence for his employees, according to the statement. Buoi also allegedly submitted falsified documentation in support of his applications for PPP funds.
The largest PPP loan request, for approximately $7.5 million, was submitted to Bank of America and denied, according to the criminal complaint. Loan requests for approximately $2 million each were submitted to finance companies Fountainhead Commercial Capital and Newtek Small Business Finance LLC, and both loans were denied, according to the complaint.
Another PPP loan application for approximately $2 million was submitted to San Francisco-based financial technology firm Fundbox Inc., according to the complaint, and that loan was approved and disbursed. Buoi had also applied for an Economic Injury Disaster Loan, according to the complaint, and allegedly received a $10,000 payment from the Treasury Department.
Buoi ultimately received over $2 million in PPP funds, the complaint alleges, and the government has seized approximately $1.98 million from Sosuda’s business bank accounts.
“The defendant tried to defraud an emergency program designed to help businesses, and their employees, survive the most difficult economic crisis since the Great Depression,” United States Attorney Andrew Lelling said in the statement. “This behavior is reprehensible, and my office is committed to rooting out and prosecuting this kind of fraud wherever we find it.”
