Ever wonder if federal judges sometimes look at the defendants and think to themselves “Not surprised?” That may have crossed the mind of some in the court on December 21st, 2022 with the case of Julian Martins for Federal Housing Administration fraud and COVID Economic Injury Disaster Loan and COVID-19 Unemployment Insurance Fraud. Because this was not Martins’ first rodeo with breaking the law.
In 2014, Martins had already been found guilty of committing a stolen identity tax refund scheme and for forgery and counterfeiting. But Martins did not learn much while incarcerated. After being placed into a federal supervised release she resumed her fraudster ways and applied for an FHA-guaranteed loan. As part of the application, she provided false explanations about gaps in her employment history, claiming that she was unemployed due to a “family emergency” when in fact she had been incarcerated (kind of true – imprisonment is an emergency). Martins also forgot to mention she had yet to pay a $385,533 federal restitution order. Martins was issued a FHA insured mortgage in the amount of $265,109 on that application.
Then the pandemic came and a new opportunity for Martins to fraud! In April 2020, Martins fraudulently applied for and received COVID-related unemployment insurance benefits when she was in fact employed as an office manager. Then in July 2020, Martins submitted a fraudulent application for a Small Business Administration (SBA) low-interest COVID-related Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL), claiming that she was an independent contractor in the health service business that had been impacted by the pandemic. In total, Martins received over $40,000 in COVID relief benefits to which she was not entitled.
Martins was found guilty and was sentenced on by U.S. District Court Chief John J. McConnell, Jr., to eighteen months in prison followed by three years of federal supervised release! Can’t wait to see what Martin’s does on that next federal supervised release. Martins was also ordered to pay restitution totaling $43,537.
Today’s Fraud of the Day is based on an article “Convicted of defrauding U.S. for $385K, North Providence woman indicted for lying on home loan application” published by The Providence Journal on December 22, 2022.
A North Providence woman convicted of stealing nearly $400,000 from the U.S. Treasury has been indicted on related charges, accused of making false statements on a home-loan application, according to the U.S. Attorney for Rhode Island.
Juliana Martins, 52, neglected to mention on the June 2019 loan application and closing documents that a judge had ordered her to pay $385,534 in restitution to the federal government, according to Acting U.S. Attorney Richard B. Myrus.
