NEW YORK–A Chinese national who goes by the name “Hummer Mars” faces up to 30 years in prison after admitting he planned to take $20 million in fraudulent loan applications to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).
The crime appears to be one of the biggest known attempts to scam the loan program.
The man, whose actual name is Muge Ma, pled guilty to one count of bank fraud in Manhattan federal court.
According to prosecutors, Ma claimed two companies he owned employed hundreds of workers and paid millions in wages, when, in fact, Ma was the only person working for the companies.
Ma submitted fraudulent payroll records, bank records and tax records between March and mid-May of 2020, according to the Justice Department.
Other Fraud Attempts
While Ma’s main target was the PPP loan program, he also attempted to win federal funding from the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program (EDIL.
Prosecutors said Ma, 37, also claimed to be a U.S. citizen when he’s actually a Chinese national with legal residence in New York City.
The DoJ said Ma had been given around $800,000 in PPP loan funding, which was frozen after his arrest on May 21, 2020, and had also been approved for $650,000 in EDIL loans.
According to authorities, the biggest single fraud attempt appears to have taken place in Texas. In March, a man pleaded guilty to trying to obtain $24.8-million in PPP funding. He received $17 million, which he used to buy houses and luxury cars.