Federal Law Enforcement Officer Arrested for Allegedly Fraudulently Obtaining COVID-19 Business-Relief Funds for Shell Companies

LOS ANGELES – A United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer has been arrested on a five-count federal grand jury indictment alleging he fraudulently obtained nearly $150,000 in COVID-19 pandemic business-relief loan funds for two of his sham businesses, the Justice Department announced today.

Amer Aldarawsheh, 45, of Moreno Valley, is charged with five counts of wire fraud.

He was arrested Wednesday morning and pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him at his arraignment Wednesday afternoon in United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles. A federal magistrate judge ordered Aldarawsheh released on $30,000 bond and scheduled a June 16 in U.S. District Court in Riverside.

According to the indictment unsealed Wednesday, Aldarawsheh owned and purportedly operated two businesses:  Nahar Enterprises Inc., a San Bernardino based business he described as a trucking and freight company, and Ameral, which he described as an automotive repair company.

From July 2020 to December 2021, Aldarawsheh made false statements to the Small Business Administration (SBA) to fraudulently obtain a loan under the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program (EIDL), which provided low-interest financing to small businesses, renters, and homeowners in regions affected by declared disasters.

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act of 2020 authorized the SBA to provide EIDL loans of up to $2 million to eligible small businesses experiencing substantial financial disruption during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Aldarawsheh applied to the SBA for EIDL loans on behalf of his two companies, neither of which had substantial business or employees. EIDL loans were supposed to be used by the recipient to only pay certain authorized business expenses.   Instead, Aldarawsheh knowingly misappropriated and misused the EIDL funds he received from the SBA for his own personal benefit, including in December 2020, causing the transfer of $149,900 in SBA COVID-19 EIDL loan funds to be wired from the SBA to a bank account under his control.

An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

If convicted, Aldarawsheh would face a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for each count.

The United States Custom and Border Protection Office of Professional Responsibility, Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General, and Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated this matter.

Assistant United States Attorneys Laura A. Alexander and Michael J. Morse of the Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section are prosecuting this case.