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Coppell man pleads guilty to $24M COVID-19 relief fraud scheme

By FOX 7 Austin Digital Team
Published  March 25, 2021 4:19pm CDT
COVID-19 and the Economy
FOX 7 Austin

COPPELL, Texas - A Coppell man has pled guilty to orchestrating a fraud scheme to get almost $25 million in forgivable loans from the Paycheck Protection Program and laundering the proceeds.

According to court documents, 55-year-old Dinesh Sah admitted that he submitted 15 fraudulent applications, filed under the names of various businesses he said he owned or controlled, to eight different lenders seeking approximately $24.8 million in PPP loans.

Court documents say Sah pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering. He faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison.

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The US Attorney's office says Sah claimed that the businesses had numerous employees and hundreds of thousands of dollars in payroll expenses when, in fact, no business had employees or paid wages consistent with the amounts claimed in the PPP applications. Sah further admitted that he also submitted fake documents, including fabricated federal tax filings and bank statements, and falsely listed others as authorized representatives without authority.

Sah admitted that he received over $17 million in PPP loan funds and diverted the proceeds for his personal benefit, using them to purchase multiple homes in Texas, pay off the mortgages on other homes in California, and buy a fleet of luxury cars, including a Bentley convertible, Corvette Stingray, and Porsche Macan. Sah also sent millions of dollars in PPP proceeds in international money transfers.

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As part of his guilty plea, Sah agreed to forfeit, among other property, eight homes, numerous luxury vehicles, and more than $7.2 million in fraudulent proceeds that the government has seized to date, says the US Attorney's office.

Anyone with general information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form.