Listen to this articleThree Long Islanders, including an NYPD detective, are among the four charged in federal court in Brooklyn Monday in a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) fraud scheme, officials said.
Among those charged are John Bolden of Valley Stream, and an NYPD detective, and Anthony Carreira of Staten Island, now a retired NYPD detective. Also facing charges are Jacqueline Johnson of Valley Stream and Christian McKenzie of Wheatley Heights. The four are charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, according to Breon Peace, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
The charges involve engaging in a scheme to submit fraudulent applications for loans under the U.S. Small Business Administration PPP program, which Congress created under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security, or CARES, Act.
“As alleged, the defendants, including members of law enforcement responsible for upholding the law, defrauded the United States government out of relief funds meant for businesses struggling to survive the pandemic,” Peace said in a news release about the charges.
“These arrests are a powerful reminder of this Office’s resolve to prosecute anyone who violated the public trust and took advantage of the COVID crisis by stealing from relief programs,” he added.
An attorney for Bolden declined to comment. LIBN was unable to immediately reach any of the other defendants’ attorneys.
Bolden, Johnson and McKenzie were arraigned on Monday and released on $25,000 bail. Carreira has agreed to surrender at a later date, officials said.
Bolden has been suspended without pay, and Carreira has since retired from the NYPD, according to published reports.
Officials say that Bolden and Carreira had partnered in an interest in a tax preparation franchise. The alleged fraud scheme began at the height of COVID in May of 2020, when Bolden received an email from “Co-Conspirator 1,” with an audio recording that discussed how to prepare fraudulent PPP forms. In the recording, officials said, “Co-Conspirator-1 recommended that meeting participants submit PPP loan applications in amounts less than $20,000 to avoid having to submit proof the money sought was properly used in order to apply for loan forgiveness.”
According to prosecutors, Co-Conspirator 1 went on to say “We all want the bread, but we also want the loan forgiveness. That’s the big win.”
Between May 2020 and October 2022, Bolden allegedly engaged in a scheme to defraud the SBA by working with his clients and co-defendants to fraudulently obtain PPP funds. Bolden allegedly supported efforts to fraudulently obtain PPP funds for himself, his co-defendants and more than 65 people by helping submit online loan applications that contained false and fraudulent information.
As part of the scheme, Bolden allegedly prepared fictitious Internal Revenue Service documentation, which accompanied the loan applications, allegedly containing false information about his, his co-defendants’ and his clients’ places of employment, gross income and net income, officials said.