Sanjay Patel, a former Georgia-based attorney, has entered a guilty plea for obtaining nearly $300,000 in fraudulent Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) earmarked for COVID-19 relief and engaging in money laundering over $250,000 from separate investor fraud schemes. According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia, Patel's sentencing is scheduled for December 12. U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan emphasized the seriousness of Patel's crimes, stating, "It is especially aggravating that Patel, an attorney, not only used his professional standing to commit money laundering, but he also defrauded the American taxpayer out of hundreds of thousands of dollars."
Betwixt August 2020 and March 2021, Patel submitted multiple falsified EIDL loan applications, inflating his law firm's number of employees and gross revenues. Some applications even misrepresented the existence of his practice. The SBA, having relied on these misrepresentations, approved two loans amounting to roughly $300,000. Patel was found to have grossly misused the loan proceeds, spending liberally on personal expenses, including making trips to casinos and settling non-business debts rather than allocating the funds to maintain business operations as mandated by the loan terms. "This plea proves that no matter how much time has passed, if you commit financial crimes and steal from American taxpayers, you will be held accountable," said FBI Atlanta Special Agent in Charge Keri Farley in a statement obtained by the press release.
In a separate scheme, Patel used his Interest on Lawyer Trust Account (IOLTA) to launder funds from unrelated investment scams. In one instance, he deceived an investor into forwarding $350,000 with the pretense of funding an energy project, only to quickly divert a substantial sum to another entity. The investigation, which included the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Postal Inspection Service among others, uncovered Patel's money laundering actions that were characters of a broader exploitation of emergency relief efforts during the pandemic.
The case falls under the broader canopy of efforts by the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force, initiated by the Attorney General in May 2021. The Task Force aims to singularly address pandemic-related fraud, enhance prosecution of culpable individuals, and safeguard the integrity of relief programs. Assistant U.S. Attorney Alex R. Sistla is prosecuting the case, with a call to action for the public to report any suspected fraud related to COVID-19 to the National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form. "This office will remain steadfast in coordinating with our federal law enforcement partners to identify and hold accountable those who defrauded the government’s COVID relief programs," Buchanan further elaborated in remarks cited by the U.S. Attorney's Office.
