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A California woman has been charged with trying to defraud the pandemic relief program of $4.5 million in loans, according to the Justice Department.
Christina Burden, 31, of Oakland, was charged with one count of bank fraud in June when she applied for and received a $684,375 Paycheck Protection Program loan for a shell company.
Burden went on to submit nine additional fraudulent PPP loan requests and wound up being granted more than $4.5 million for four different bogus companies, the DOJ reported, citing a criminal complaint.
"The Paycheck Protection Program provides a financial lifeline to needy businesses and their employees," prosecutors said. "We allege that Christina Burden obtained PPP funds by fraud, submitting false business information, false employee numbers, false bank statements, and false tax returns."
Burden spent the majority of the PPP cash she received on material items and personal luxuries, including private jet travel, hotel stays, boat rentals, restaurant expenses, luxury cars, Louis Vuitton and Neiman Marcus products, and other specialty items, the complaint states.
A woman wearing a protective mask walks past a Louis Vuitton store, a unit of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA. (Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Burden's fraudulent applications included doctored bank statements and fake tax forms, the DOJ noted.
"As we begin a second round of PPP loans for small businesses who are struggling during this pandemic, we will be on alert for fraudsters who seek to take advantage of the program," FBI San Francisco Special Agent in Charge Craig Fair said in a statement.
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"Those who wish to defraud programs designed to help those in need should know that the FBI and our partners will pursue every investigative tool available to us to ensure the integrity of those programs and that they remain available to our community’s small business owners," Fair said.
The Small Business Administration's PPP forgivable loan program was first implemented through the March CARES Act.
CALIFORNIA MAN INDICTED FOR $1.7M PPP LOAN FRAUD: DOJ
The SBA said Tuesday that it has approved more than 400,000 loans so far worth about $35 billion. The figures were the first released by the SBA since the program reopened earlier this month.
Roughly 66% of loans were for $60,000 or less, with the average loan about $87,000.
Fox Business' Megan Henney contributed to this report.
