GEORGIA MAN CHARGED WITH WIRE FRAUD CONSPIRACY IN CONNECTION WITH PPP LOAN SCAM

St. Thomas, VI – United States Attorney Delia L. Smith announced today that Raynaldo Oquendo, 38, of Georgia, was charged by indictment with wire fraud and wire fraud conspiracy in connection with a fraudulent PPP loan scam.

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security ("CARES") Act was a federal law enacted in or around March 2020, designed to provide emergency financial assistance to millions of Americans who were suffering the economic effects caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. One source of relief provided by the CARES Act was the authorization of up to $849 billion in forgivable loans to small businesses for job retention and certain other expenses, through a program referred to as the Paycheck Protection Program ("PPP''). In order to obtain a PPP loan, qualifying businesses were required to submit a loan application, signed by an authorized representative of the business. The loan application required the business to acknowledge the program rules and make certain affirmative certifications in order to be eligible to obtain the PPP loan. In the PPP loan application, the small business was required to state its average monthly payroll expenses and its number of employees, among other things. These figures were used to calculate the amount of money the small business was eligible to receive under the PPP.

According to court documents, a loan application was submitted on behalf of a Virgin Islands business, Shama’s Specialties, in July of 2020. The owner of that business, Mashama Ferdinand, worked with Oquendo to submit an application that included material misrepresentations. Specifically, the application fraudulently claimed that Ferdinand employed 15 employees and earned a quarterly payroll of $460,079.82. Based on these fraudulent misrepresentations, a PPP loan was awarded to Shama’s Specialties in the amount of $383,397.00. For his role, Oquendo received approximately $30,000.00 after the proceeds of the loan were deposited into Shama’s Specialties’ bank account. If convicted, Oquendo faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. In 2022, Ferdinand was sentenced by Chief Judge Robert Molloy to 33 months incarceration her guilty plea to wire fraud.

This case is being investigated by the United States Secret Service and Small Business Administration’s Office of the Inspector General and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Yasir Sadat.

United States Attorney Smith reminds the public that an indictment is merely a formal charging document, and the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.