Grand jury charges Florida man in alleged COVID-19 relief fraud scheme

FLORIDA – A former South Florida immigrant detention facility officer has been charged with COVID-19 relief fraud, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida has announced.

A Miami federal grand jury has charged Anthony Faustin, 28, of Homestead, with conspiracy, wire and bank fraud, access device, and aggravated identity theft crimes, in connection with an alleged scheme to obtain fraudulent loans under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).

According to the allegations in the indictment, Faustin submitted fraudulent PPP loan applications on behalf of six individuals in 2021. Faustin reportedly made the applicants appear eligible for pandemic relief in the loan paperwork by misrepresenting them as sole proprietors or lying about their prior years’ income (or both).

The indictment claimed that lenders disbursed over $100,000 to bank accounts controlled by the individuals, who would then withdraw the money and give Faustin his cut.

At the time of the alleged crimes, Faustin was a contractor with Immigration and Customs Enforcement working as a detention officer at Krome North Service Processing Center in Miami.

Faustin made his initial appearance last week in federal magistrate court in Miami. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison on the conspiracy and fraud counts and two years on the aggravated identity theft counts.

A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe for the Southern District of Florida, Special Agent in Charge Jimmy Valenzuela for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office of Professional Responsibility (ICE OPR), and SBA OIG’s Eastern Region Special Agent in Charge Amaleka McCall-Brathwaite, U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General (SBA OIG), Investigations Division’s Eastern Region, announced the charges.

ICE OPR and SBA OIG investigated this matter.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Bernstein is prosecuting the case.

An indictment contains mere allegations, and all defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.