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Press Release

Albany Man Sentenced to Prison for Stealing Nearly $1 Million in Federal Funds

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of New York

ALBANY, NEW YORK – Asjid Parvez, age 38, of Albany, was sentenced today to 18 months in prison for stealing nearly $1 million in federal funds from a program that helped struggling farmers pay off their loans.

United States Attorney Carla B. Freedman and Craig L. Tremaroli, Special Agent in Charge of the Albany Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), made the announcement.

In 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act authorized the United States Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) to financially assist certain distressed borrowers who had fallen behind on repaying their federally guaranteed farm loans. Parvez was one such borrower, having defaulted on a loan that he had used to purchase a Maryland chicken farm in 2014.

In previously pleading guilty, Parvez admitted that in May 2023, the FSA sent him a United States Treasury check in the amount of $972,564.61. Parvez knew that he needed to use these funds to pay off the federally guaranteed farm loan on which he had defaulted. But instead, he stole the money, and used the funds to pay personal expenses and to fund real estate investments. Parvez stole the money by opening a bank account in the name of his lender; depositing the Treasury check – which was jointly payable to the defendant and the lender – into that account; and then quickly transferring the Treasury funds to other accounts that he controlled.

United States District Judge Anne M. Nardacci also ordered Parvez to serve 3 years of post-imprisonment supervised release and pay $972,564.61 in restitution to the FSA.

The FBI has already seized $516,974.54 traceable to the federal funds that Parvez stole, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Asset Recovery Unit has filed a civil action seeking the forfeiture of a residential property in Albany that was purchased using approximately $202,675 in stolen funds.

The FBI investigated this case, with assistance from the United States Department of Agriculture Office of Inspector General.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Barnett prosecuted this case, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Conger is representing the United States in the asset forfeiture action.

Updated May 23, 2024

Topic
Financial Fraud