A Washington state executive has been sentenced to two years in prison after fraudulently obtaining nearly $ 1.8 million in federal disaster relief loans COVID-19
SEATTLE – A Washington state technology executive has been sentenced to two years in prison after fraudulently obtaining nearly $ 1.8 million in federal COVID-19 disaster relief loans.
Clyde Hill’s Mukund Mohan previously worked for Microsoft and Amazon and earned more than $ 200,000 a year as chief technology officer for Canadian e-commerce company BuildDirect when he was arrested in July 2020.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Seattle said it filed eight fraudulent loan applications from the Payment Check Protection Program requesting $ 5.5 million for companies it allegedly ran and actually received nearly $ 1.8 million.
Mohan’s lawyers asked for a six-month sentence, noting that Mohan had no criminal record and had only spent $ 16,500. They said his actions, possibly triggered by mental health issues, were such an aberration for him that he fainted when federal agents knocked on his door.
Federal authorities were able to seize the money from Mohan’s accounts. He returned the amount he had spent and was ordered to pay a $ 100,000 fine.
As part of the scheme, Mohan filed false and amended documents, including false federal tax returns and altered incorporation documents. He said one of his companies had dozens of employees when in fact it had none.
In a press release, Corinne Kalve, the IRS’s Special Agent in Criminal Investigation, attributed the crime to Mohan’s greed, saying that when people abuse these benefit programs they “steal the most vulnerable.” .