Man who bought Lambo using COVID relief funds sentenced to 9 years

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• A Texas man who spent COVID relief funds on luxury cars was sentenced Monday to more than nine years in prison.
• Lee Price III, 30 pleaded guilty in September to wire fraud and money laundering charges.
• Price fraudulently obtained $1.6 million in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans intended to help small business owners during the pandemic.

A Texas man who fraudulently got $1.6 million in coronavirus relief loans and then spent some of it on a Lamborghini was sentenced to more than nine years in prison Monday, federal prosecutors said.

Lee Price III, 30, was sentenced to 110 months on wire fraud and money laundering counts, the Justice Department said. He pleaded guilty in September.

Price eceived $1.6 million in loans from the Paycheck Protection Program, which Congress passed in March 2020 to help businesses affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The purported businesses had no record of employees or payroll, and Price spent some of the money on a Lamborghini Urus, a Ford F-350 and a Rolex watch, according to court documents.

Officials have said more than $700,000 was recovered.

Price’s attorney, Tom Berg, said Monday night that Price pleaded guilty without conditions.

“Mr. Price hopes that others will learn from his reckoning that there is no easy money,” Berg said in an email. “He has the balance of the 110-month sentence to reflect, repent and rebuild his misspent life.”

The Paycheck Protection Program was part of the more than $2 trillion CARES Act, which was passed to provide relief to workers and businesses devastated by the pandemic.

At least 120 people have been charged with fraud related to the program, the Justice Department said in March.

Source: NBC News