According to court documents, a Las Vegas businessman who has been praised for building “a thriving” company is accused of stealing $11 million in federal loans meant to assist struggling businesses during the pandemic.
He is accused of doing this by falsely claiming that he had hundreds of employees for one application when, in reality, he had none.
Meelad Dezfooli, of Henderson, is accused by criminal investigators with the IRS of receiving more than $11.2 million in PPP loans through fraudulent means to acquire homes, and automobiles, and make investments.
During the first year of the coronavirus epidemic, the Paycheck Protection Program was created to assist businesses in continuing to pay their employees and keep them on staff.
In 2019, Dezfooli was referred to as “the dreamer” in an article that was sponsored by a bank and published on the website of a financial magazine.
The article stated that he “built a thriving flooring business out of the ashes of the recession in the late 2000s.”
The I-Team from 8 News Now went to the place and discovered that it was closed. According to the records submitted to the court, Dezfooli filled out all of his applications with the address of East Sunset Road.
According to the records filed in court by detectives, in April of 2020, Dezfooli, who described himself as the manager and owner of Best Floors, exaggerated the company’s personnel count as well as its payroll.
The application that Dezfooli submitted included a company location on East Sunset Road, close to Harry Reid International Airport; however, according to investigators’ statements in court filings, “Best Floors did not have a lease at this address when the application was submitted.”
The I-Team from 8 News Now went to the place and discovered that it was closed. According to the records submitted to the court, Dezfooli filled out all of his applications with the address of East Sunset Road.
According to the investigators’ statements in the court documents, Dezfooli stated in his application for a PPP loan that Best Floors’ “typical monthly wage” was approximately $440,000 to cover 76 employees.
According to the investigators, Dezfooli had one employee and a quarterly payroll that was less than 1,400 dollars.
The I-Team from 8 News Now went to the place and discovered that it was closed.
According to the investigators, Dezfooli “falsely declared that the loan funds would be utilised to retain personnel and maintain payroll, in compliance with PPP loans,” whereas in reality, Dezfooli intended to syphon the majority of the revenues for his own gain.
In addition, according to the investigators, Dezfooli allegedly made a false claim that the company had paid $5.2 million in salaries in 2019, when in reality, “wage payments were substantially smaller,” and the company did not file a form stating wages for that year.
A month after he submitted the application for the loan, the Nevada State Contractors Board issued a citation to Dezfooli and Best Floors in May of 2020. Since then, the board has decided to take away his licence.
According to the findings of the investigation, Dezfooli is suspected of having lied when he claimed that his company, Nevada Sales, had 477 employees while in reality there were none. According to reports, the firm was also operated out of the premises on Sunset Road.
Investigators claim that Dezfooli applied for a PPP loan of nearly $1.5 million through a second company in April 2020. They say that he “identified himself as the CEO” of this company and that he was the owner.
According to data from the state in the year 2020, the business in question, which was known as A-Series, had a total of 10 employees, but Dezfooli represented having 96 employees, investigators stated.
In addition, Dezfooli mentioned that the company was located at the address on Sunset Road.
According to the terms of a new loan for the A-Series, the company’s wage payments for 2019 were more than $7 million. According to the investigators, Dezfooli included a “fraudulent NV Energy power bill” as part of the application process that he was submitting.
According to the investigators, a third business known as Nevada Sales was also given money from PPP.
According to the authorities, Dezfooli is suspected of making a false claim that he had 477 employees while in reality there were none. According to reports, the firm was also operated out of the premises on Sunset Road.
According to the documents, the investigators were able to trace the money back to the purchase of a Bentley and a Tesla, as well as residences in Las Vegas and Henderson.
A month after he submitted the application for the loan, the Nevada State Contractors Board issued a citation to Dezfooli and Best Floors in May of 2020. Since then, the board has decided to take away his licence.
Officials stated that as of March, criminal investigators from the IRS had opened more than 600 cases involving alleged instances of tax fraud and money laundering tied to COVID money, which totalled around $1.8 billion.
In a statement made earlier this year, IRS Criminal Investigator Chief Jim Lee said, “Unfortunately, even during times of crisis, criminals pop their heads out to look for ways to take advantage of those in their most vulnerable state.”
Criminals look for opportunities to take advantage of those in their most vulnerable state. “Thanks to the investigative work of IRS-CI special agents and our law enforcement partners, we’re assured that those criminals who try to cheat CARES Act programmes will face consequences for their conduct,”
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It was said by Dezfooli’s public defender that he was unable to comment on the pending dispute.
The Federal Reserve Board, as well as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), as well as investigators from the Small Business Administration also contributed to the investigation.
