Chinese national jailed 4 years in US over US$20 million coronavirus pandemic fraud scheme
- Muge Ma falsely claimed to be paying hundreds of employees millions of dollars in wages to apply for Covid-19 relief funds, when he was actually working alone
- The judge said the prison term was needed to warn others against abusing government programmes meant to help people in a national emergency
A Chinese national was sentenced to more than four years in prison on Thursday after admitting that he fraudulently tried to get US$20 million in federal coronavirus relief funds meant to rescue distressed businesses.
US District Judge Richard M. Berman announced the four-year, four-month prison term for Muge Ma at a sentencing hearing in New York.
The judge said the prison term was necessary because of the seriousness of the crimes and the need for others to be warned against abusing government programmes meant to help people in a national emergency.
Ma, 38, was arrested in May 2020 by federal authorities who said he had applied to at least five banks to try to get over US$20 million in government-guaranteed loans from the Paycheque Protection Programme and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan programme. Both programmes were designed for businesses harmed by coronavirus shutdowns.
I love America. I’m very, very sorry to my country, America
Authorities said he falsely claimed to be paying hundreds of employees millions of dollars in wages through two companies he controlled.
To support the claims, he submitted fraudulent bank, tax, insurance and payroll records and provided banks with links to websites that described the companies as “global”, prosecutors said.
