A Seattle-area tech executive has been sentenced for defrauding the Paycheck Protection Program and receiving nearly $1.8 million in Covid-19 relief funds.
Mukund Mohan, 48, of Clyde Hill is a former director for both Amazon and Microsoft. Now he faces up to two years in prison and over $2 million in fines and restitution. (Oh, how the mighty have fallen.) He pleaded guilty in March to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering.
According to court documents, Mohan filed eight separate fraudulent disaster loan applications with a total request of $5.5 million. The original complaint named one of his companies, Mahenjo Inc., for which he had false documents and tax forms produced. (You’d think a man with nearly unlimited resources would know better than to stoop so low.)
The application states the company had dozens of employees and paid millions in wages in 2019. This was false as Moahn did not buy Mahenjo until May 2020 when it had no employees or business activity. (Did he think no one would check on the details of his application?)
Moahn was reportedly making more than $200,000 a year as a technology executive for the Canadian e-commerce company BuildDirect when he was arrested in July last year. (It seems like these funds would have been better off in the hands of someone less fortunate, say someone making less than eight figures a year.)
Unfortunately, Mohan isn’t the only fraudster trying to obtain PPP loans that they’re not entitled to. The Department of Justice said that they’ve seized over $65 million in cashed disbursed through fraudulent PPP loans. (Good for them!)
Hopefully, Moahn’s case helps to set an example that no one is exempt from the law, not even tech moguls or billionaires. (Fraud catches up to you whether you are rich or poor.)
Today’s Fraud of the Day comes from an article, “Seattle-area tech executive sentenced to prison over fraudulent PPP loans,” published by Puget Sound Business Journal on August 25, 2021.
A Seattle-area tech executive who has worked with startups and tech giants was sentenced Tuesday for defrauding the Paycheck Protection Program and receiving nearly $1.8 million in Covid-19 relief funds, according to court documents.
Mukund Mohan, 48, of Clyde Hill — a small city located between Medina and Bellevue — faces up to two years in prison and over $2 million in fines and restitution. He pleaded guilty in March to two charges filed against him in July 2020, one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering. He filed eight separate disaster loan applications, all fraudulent, with a total request of $5.5 million, documents said.
