With the CARES Act Paycheck Protection Program Loans, the application required applicants to confirm that they hadn’t any felony conviction, guilty plea, or related pretrial diversion program, or been placed on any form of parole or probation, in the past five years. If the answer to either question was yes, the form stated “the loan will not be approved.” So just don’t confirm. That’s what Anthony Lynn Fluker did. And in doing so, he obtained approximately twenty-three loans totaling more than $3.6 million in fraud. It wasn’t the only lie in his application.
These programs were intended to provide critical financial assistance to small businesses suffering economic harm because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Fluker didn’t own any businesses. And he had no business applying for loans. But he did. As part of his scheme, Fluker prepared and submitted false applications in the names of other individuals and companies. At the time of the applications, Fluker was on federal supervised release for prior fraud conviction using stolen identity. A fact he failed to state on the applications. Fluker used the fraudulently obtained loan proceeds for his own personal expenses, including sending $75,000 in loan proceeds to a luxury car dealer to obtain a Lamborghini. A fraudster has got to look good on his way to his parole officer.
As part of his plea agreement for COVID-19 loan fraud, Fluker also admitted to his earlier arraignment of obtaining more than half a million dollars through bank fraud and another approximately $170,000 from credit cards obtained through identity theft. Fluker was sentenced to more than eleven years in federal prison following his conviction for wire fraud and money laundering in connection with a multi-million-dollar pandemic loan fraud scheme. He was also sentenced to twenty-four months in prison for his supervised release violations, to be served concurrently to his 135-month sentence. Fluker was also ordered to pay $3.8 million in restitution.
Excellent job by the United States Secret Service Saginaw Resident Office in this case.
Today’s Fraud of The Day is based on article “Flint man convicted for multi-million dollar pandemic loan fraud scheme” published by Michigan Now on March 21, 2024
Antonio Lynn Fluker was sentenced to more than 11 years in federal prison following his conviction for wire fraud and money laundering. The 36-year-old has also been ordered to pay $3.8 million in restitution. The U.S. District Court sentenced Fluker after his guilty plea to wire fraud and money laundering.
Fluker defrauded the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program, according to court documents. These two programs were intended to provide financial assistance to small business who had economic issues because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
