A 40-year-old Lehigh Acres man has pleaded guilty to defrauding the U.S. Small Business Administration out of $413,900 in pandemic relief funds, admitting he spent the entire sum within a year on a luxury SUV, a heavy-duty pickup truck and $172,505 in cash withdrawals. Thakur Sukhdeo pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud and two counts of illegal monetary transactions, according to federal prosecutors.
The SBA deposited the $413,900 into an account for J.R. Handyman Pro's LLC on March 24, 2022, under the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, as reported by the Business Observer. Sukhdeo was the only signatory on that account, and he had promised to use the funds only for business expenses. He has since agreed to forfeit the full $413,900, per a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Prosecutors alleged Sukhdeo misrepresented how the loan funds would be used on his application. Bank records showed the company actually made $19,843.50 in 2019, while Sukhdeo had reported on his loan application that the handyman business made $206,998 that year — a gap of nearly $190,000 between what the books showed and what he told the government.
Jaguar, GMC Truck and Six Figures in Cash
Within weeks of the loan landing in his account, Sukhdeo started spending. He put $68,984.61 toward a 2018 Jaguar F-Pace SUV on April 12, 2022, then followed that up nine days later with $93,994.42 for a 2020 GMC Sierra 3500 heavy-duty truck. Authorities also alleged he withdrew $172,505 in cash from the account. The Justice Department says the entire loan was gone within a year.
Sukhdeo was charged in October 2024, and the case has now moved to a guilty plea in federal court. Gregory W. Kehoe, the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida, issued a statement Wednesday confirming the plea. The Business Observer's report, authored by Louis Llovio, notes the case was investigated by the FBI and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Matthew Redavid, while Assistant U.S. Attorney Suzanne Nebesky is handling the forfeiture.
Conflicting Figures on Possible Prison Time
The Business Observer's account states Sukhdeo faces up to 20 years in federal prison for each wire fraud count and up to 10 years for each illegal monetary transaction count.
Officials describe Sukhdeo's case as part of a broader, long-running federal crackdown on COVID-relief fraud, carried out by a task force that includes the Middle District of Florida U.S. Attorney's Office's criminal, asset recovery, appellate and civil divisions alongside federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. The U.S. Small Business Administration has reported that it disbursed roughly $1.2 trillion in COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan and Paycheck Protection Program funds over the course of the pandemic, a pool of money that has since drawn years of fraud investigations nationwide.
Broader Pandemic Loan Enforcement
The SBA has separately flagged suspensions tied to 870,000 U.S. borrowers nationwide connected to $39 billion in suspected pandemic fraud.
