Fraud Friday – PPP & EIDL Fraudster Used Proceeds to Purchase a Restaurant in Egypt

October 20, 2023

Delaney Sexton
Contributing Editor

Fraud Friday – PPP & EIDL Fraudster Used Proceeds to Purchase a Restaurant in Egypt

Ahmed Sary pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud affecting financial institutions after submitting almost $18 million in PPP and EIDL applications. If the Court accepts the plea agreement, Sary will be sentenced to between 5 years and 9.5 years in federal prison. His sentencing is scheduled for February 2024.

Sary received nearly $1 million in PPP and EIDL funds for businesses he purportedly controlled including a financial services business, a meatpacking business, a clothing company, and a talent agency. In reality, none of these businesses legitimately existed. With the loan proceeds, he traveled to Dubai and Egypt multiple times and stayed at luxury hotels. While he was there, he purchased property in Egypt to open a beachfront restaurant called Sary’s Kitchen.

From 2020 10 2022, Sary and his co-conspirators aided other borrowers in obtaining fraudulent PPP loans and EIDLs by preparing the applications for them. These applications were filled with inflated numbers of employees, monthly payroll costs, and revenue numbers. Some of the businesses did not legitimately exist according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Once the borrower obtained a loan, Sary and his co-conspirators would receive a kickback of anywhere from 20% to 30% of the loan.

For some of the loan recipients, Sary helped them with setting up payroll services so it would appear that the funds were being used for payroll. The payroll services also helped with the creation of documents to be used when applying for forgiveness.

Sary and his co-conspirators helped file 142 false and fraudulent applications. 85 of those were PPP applications asking for more than $14.8 million, and 57 were EIDL applications seeking over $3 million. All the loans were funded.

“Sary will now pay the price for living luxurious from stolen pandemic relief funds that others needed to keep a business open or to keep a roof over their heads,” says United States Attorney Erek L. Barron.

Source:
U.S. Attorney’s Office