People made millions of dollars during the COVID-19 pandemic through fraudulent means and now, most of them are paying the price for being fraud. Karma they say is a b*tch!
According to reports, one Miami real estate broker named Daniela Rendon has been handed a jail time of 3 and half years for blowing a whopping $381K in COVID relief funds on Bentley, a luxe apartment, and more.
A Miami real estate broker was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison for bilking the government out of $381,000 in COVID relief funds — which she used to splurge on a Bentley, luxury apartment and cosmetic procedures.
Daniela Rendon, 31, pleaded guilty in April to one count of wire fraud, having been indicted in February on six additional counts of wire fraud, two counts of money laundering and one count of aggravated identity theft.
Rendon, a Colombian-born mother of three, said during her sentencing in Miami federal court Thursday that her actions had been “motivated by insatiable greed” — because it appeared that “everybody” was fraudulently obtaining COVID-19 relief loans at the time, the Miami Herald reported.
Once feds uncovered Rendon had been fleecing the loan programs, however, the onetime “Ultra Luxury” real estate agent realized she hadn’t been harming the “faceless entities of the U.S. government,” but rather “countless individuals and businesses” that had been walloped by an “unparalleled period of economic distress.”
US District Judge K. Michael Moore said that Rendon’s confession, along with her hefty 30-page apology, led him to hand down the lenient sentence, ultimately sparing her an additional year in the clink.
“It’s not as easy to see that you’re really stealing from your neighbors, your friends and other citizens,” Moore said.
“It’s their money that goes to the Treasury that makes it possible to have these kinds of programs.”
The PPP swindler could have faced up to 20 years on the lone wire fraud charge. Assistant US Attorney Jonathan Bailyn suggested Rendon serve a three-and-a-half-year sentence while her defense attorney, Robert Mandell, asked for just five years’ probation.
In addition to jail time, Rendon has to repay $198,990 to the feds.
She wound up landing a $371,290 PPP loan and a $10,000 EIDL loan, according to the federal indictment.
Rather than use the funds for legitimate business costs, Rendon proceeded to blow the windfall on leasing a 2021 Bentley Bentayga, which she flaunted on her Instagram, and renting a luxe Biscayne Bay apartment. She also used her ill-gotten gains to cover cosmetic procedures and refurbish her designer shoes.
A June report by the Office of the Inspector General for the Small Business Administration, which oversaw the federal aid disbursement, found that 17% of the $1.2 trillion doled out in PPP and EIDL loans had been stolen through fraud schemes.
Despite people getting killed in the COVID-19 pandemic, others also raked in millions of dollars in PPP loans using fraudulent means and I’m happy most of them are now paying for their deeds. No sin will go unpunished!