Darwyn Joseph, a resident of Lawrence was sentenced yesterday, for his role in a fraudulent scheme to acquire about $452,000 from the Small Business Administration's (SBA) Economic Injury Disaster Loan fund. His accomplice, Ramon Joseph Cruz Jr., was also involved in this fraudulent endeavor, as reported by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The duo, using stolen identities of U.S. citizens with high credit scores, fraudulently opened bank accounts to receive SBA loans. Large quantities of iPhones were purchases for resale, totaling around $250,000 of the stolen funds. To further their fraudulent actions, part of the money was wired to the Dominican Republic.
Joseph's sentence includes two years and one day in prison. Upon his release, he will undergo three years of a supervised release, after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and four counts of wire fraud and aiding and abetting. In August 2023, Cruz also received a similar sentence.
In the increasing number of fraudulent attempts targeting relief funds, the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force was created by the Attorney General on May 17, 2021. This is according not to just the Department of Justice's announcement. The Task Force’s primary objective is to prevent fraud related to the pandemic and foster inter-agency collaboration to strengthen investigations and prosecutions of these malevolent acts.
The Department of Justice encourages anyone witnessing attempts of fraud during these times to report such activities to the National Center for Disaster Fraud Hotline or via their web complaint form.
