U.S. border agent is charged in COVID-19 business loan fraud scheme, authorities say

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer was arrested after he allegedly used two sham businesses to illegally request and receive nearly $150,000 from a COVID-19 pandemic relief program intended for small-business owners, authorities said this week.

Amer Aldarawsheh, 45, was indicted Wednesday on five counts of wire fraud. He is accused of intentionally misleading the U.S. Small Business Administration and mishandling loan funds, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

He has pleaded not guilty.

In 2020 and 2021, prosecutors say, the Moreno Valley man applied for loans under the SBA’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan program on behalf of two businesses: Nahar Enterprises Inc., which was described as a San Bernardino-based trucking and freight company; and Ameral, a purported automotive repair company.

However, investigators later found that neither company had “substantial business or employees,” according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office.

California

San Diego restaurant owners charged with COVID-relief fraud, money laundering

The owners of StreetCar Merchants Chicken Bar and Suckerfree Southern Plate & Bar are charged with fraud by the U.S. Attorney.

May 26, 2023

“Aldarawsheh knowingly misappropriated and misused the EIDL funds he received from the SBA for his own personal benefit,” federal prosecutors alleged in the statement, citing a December 2020 transfer of almost $150,000 in loan funds to a bank account they said was “under his control.”

Aldarawsheh, who is facing a sentence of up to 20 years in federal prison, was released on $30,000 bond, authorities said. U.S. Customs and Border Protection Special Agent in Charge Todd Siegel, of the agency’s Los Angeles professional responsibility office, did not respond to questions about Aldarawsheh’s employment status, but said in a statement that the agency “takes all allegations of misconduct and criminal activity by its employees very seriously.”

The Small Business Administration has estimated that, in an effort to more quickly distribute relief, it gave out more than $200 billion in potentially fraudulent funds through its COVID-19-era disaster loan programs.