After being convicted of two counts of wire fraud for fraudulently obtaining two Paycheck Program loans during the COVID pandemic, an Ithaca man will spend time behind bars.
61-year-old Ejembi Onah was sentenced to serve 24 months in federal prison Thursday following trial convictions for two counts of wire fraud and three counts of transacting in criminally derived property for fraudulently obtaining two Paycheck Program (PPP) loans during the pandemic, receiving over $140,000 in loan proceeds, and spending those proceeds, among other things, in three separate transactions each exceeding $10,000.
United States Attorney Carla B. Freedman; Thomas Fattorusso, Executive Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI); and Erin Keegan, Special Agent in Charge of the Buffalo Field Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), made the announcement.
PPP loans were the United States Small Business Administration (SBA)-guaranteed, forgivable loans authorized in the Coronavirus Aid Relief, Economic Security (CARES) Act, which was enacted in March 2020 to provide emergency financial assistance to Americans suffering adverse economic effects from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The government’s evidence at Onah’s October 2023 non-jury trial established that Onah submitted two fraudulent PPP loan applications to two different lenders in June 2020. Each application included false information about the payroll and number of employees at Onah’s company, which he claimed was engaged in a seasonal nanotechnology business and was supported by falsified tax returns. Onah spent the more than $140,000 he received to, among other things, pay back rent at his personal residence, lease a luxury car, and pay for his daily living expenses.
United States District Judge David N. Hurd also ordered that Onah serve a two-year term of supervised release following his release from prison and pay $218,983.32 in restitution to his victims.
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