A New York man has been sentenced to two years in prison for making false statements on loan applications he submitted on behalf of his clients through a pandemic relief program.
According to court documents, Baltej Singh Brar, 42, of South Richmond Hill, New York, owned and operated Aspire Tax & Accounting Services Inc., a tax preparation, accounting, and consulting firm where Brar was an Internal Revenue Service registered tax preparer.
In 2021, Brar began filing loan applications on behalf of other individuals through the Paycheck Protection Program, a COVID-19 relief program intended to provide loans backed by the Small Business Administration to certain businesses, non-profit organisations, and others to help them remain afloat during the pandemic.
Brar advertised, including on TikTok, that he would file PPP loan applications on behalf of clients in exchange for a flat up-front fee paired with 10% of the loan value after the loan was approved.
Brar instructed prospective PPP applicants to provide him with their Social Security number, a copy of their driver’s license, email address, prior bank statements, 2019 tax return, and a void check to be used as supporting documentation on applications.
Most of Brar’s clients were sole proprietors, including taxi drivers, truck drivers, and construction workers.
Where clients’ prior year incomes fell below the threshold to receive the maximum PPP loan amount of $20,833, Brar falsely inflated the income amounts in the PPP applications to trigger the maximum loan amount.
Brar generated and submitted false and fabricated IRS forms as supporting documentation. Brar certified on each application that the information provided in the applications and supporting documents, and forms was “true and accurate in all material respects.”
Many of Brar’s clients were eligible to receive PPP loans, though not in the inflated amounts of the PPP loan applications that Brar prepared.
Others were not entitled to receive PPP loans at all. Across the hundreds of PPP loan applications that Brar falsified, Brar caused the SBA at least $550,000 in actual losses.
