A California man is facing serious heat for allegedly cooking up a multi-million dollar COVID-19 relief fraud. Fifty-year-old Craig David Davis of Marina Del Rey had his day in court in Alexandria, Virginia, where he was charged with engineering a scheme to nab more than $10 million in federal loans designed to aid struggling businesses during the pandemic.
Davis is accused of falsifying tax documents and business records to swindle three banks into granting him two Paycheck Protection Program loans and one Main Street Lending Program loan, raking in a cool $10,695,300, the Justice Department reported. He now faces four counts of wire fraud – and if the courts find him guilty, it's up to 20 years in prison per charge that could be knocking on his door.
The case against Davis is a combined effort, with quite the roster of federal heavy hitters on the investigative front. The IR’s Criminal Investigation’s Washington D.C. Field Office, helmed by Executive Special Agent in Charge Kareem Carter, is spearheading the probe. They've got backup from an alphabet soup of agencies, including the Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Office of Inspector General, among others.
Taking the lead on the legal front, Trial Attorney David A. Peters of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathleen Robeson for the Eastern District of Virginia, are handling the prosecution. Meanwhile, as the legal gears grind forward, an indictment hangs over Davis' head. But it’s worth noting – as standard practice goes, it's just an allegation at this point, and Davis will remain cloaked in innocence until, or unless, proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law, officials reminded the public.
