(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The Justice Department filed a criminal charge Friday against Yusuf Akoll, a former senior procurement contract specialist for the U.S. Agency for International Development, which was recently shuttered and folded into the State Department.
According to the DOJ, Akoll formed a shell company in November 2020 to fraudulently obtained $16,666 in loans through the Paycheck Protection Program—the COVID-era program designed to help small businesses stay afloat.
In the charging papers filed Friday, the DOJ said that Akoll formed a company in November 2020 called SAQ Naagode Consulting LLC. In his PPP loan applications, Akoll allegedly said that his company earned $40,000 in 2019, when it actually didn’t earn anything.
“This statement regarding SAQ Naagode’s gross income in each loan application was materially false, AKOLL knew each statement was materially false, and AKOLL submitted these materially false statements to Lender #1 in order to receive each PPP loan,” the DOJ charging papers state.
COVID fraud could reach more than $1 trillion, according to an article from the Daily Wire, which first reported the charges against Akoll.
The charges against Akoll come about two months after another govermnet official was sentenced to 15 months in prison for perpetrating an $880,000 in PPP fraud. That fraudster, former DC Homeland Security and U.S. Department of Agriculture employee Wendy Nicole Villatoro, allegedly submitted eight PPP loan applications with various financial institutions, and 15 Economic Injury Disaster loans with the Small Business Administration—all of which contained materially false statements.
This is the LinkedIn account of the ex-Homeland Security official — and current Ag. Dept. employee— who pled guilty yesterday to stealing $880K from the COVID PPP scheme.
She says she's a "disruptor" (I'll say!) working on her PhD in cybersecurity. Connect with her if you’re… pic.twitter.com/nk2mBUiBjy— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) November 15, 2024
The DOJ said Villatoro submitted loans on behalf of fake businesses and inflated the number of employees, the average monthly payroll, the gross yearly revenue, or the cost of goods sold.
“In doing so, the DOJ said she tried to steal between $2.6 million and $5.5 million,” the DOJ said in a press release.
“While most of Villatoro’s loan applications were denied, she successfully secured over $844,000 in PPP and EID funds. Villatoro used the funds to pay off her student loans, pay off the car loan on a BMW SUV, and buy luxury items,” the DOJ said.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
