Former National Football League wide receiver Joshua Bellamy
By Kevin Deutsch
A Coral Springs man will serve federal prison time for leading a nationwide scheme to fraudulently obtain over $24 million in COVID-19 Paycheck Protection Program loans—with the help of former National Football League wide receiver Joshua Bellamy, federal prosecutors said.
According to court documents, Phillip J. Augustin, 53, was sentenced this week to 6.5 years imprisonment by U.S. District Judge Pamela Barker in Cleveland, Ohio, where Augustin spearheaded the scam.
Barker also ordered Augustin to pay $5.9 million in restitution and forfeit $280,000 in funds previously seized from his bank account by the Department of Justice, records show.
According to the federal government, Augustin conspired to obtain millions of dollars in fraudulent PPP loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration, then collected kickbacks from people like Bellamy, who Augustin enlisted to help with the fraud.
Another of Augustin’s partners in the conspiracy, James Stote, 56, of Hollywood, Fla., was also sentenced this week and received a 10-year prison term.
After submitting an initial PPP application, accompanied by falsified documents, Augustin and Stote worked to obtain larger PPP loans for themselves and their associates, exploiting the government’s speedy approval process early in the pandemic, records show.
“They recruited additional PPP loan applicants and prepared and submitted…
