An airman from Shaw Air Force Base and an Army reservist deployed overseas were among four recently charged in a scheme to steal millions of dollars of COVID-19 relief loans, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of South Carolina.
Senior Airman Kehinde Mubarak Ladepo, 26, Army Reserve Lt. Maxwell Okobi, 24, and two others were charged for allegedly stealing $1 million in government pandemic relief loans and attempting to swindle another million more.
The other defendants are Jacob Liticker, who led the scam, and an ex-service member named Ganiyu Victor Ladepo, whose relationship to the airman is not public at this time, prosecutor Derek Shoemake told Military Times.
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act’s Paycheck Protection Program, which ended in May last year, offered small businesses assistance through forgivable loans to manage costs attributed to the pandemic.
Beginning in 2020, the group created false PPP loan applications for nearly 100 people across the country, typically for amounts around $20,000, according to the indictment. The schemers would then help individuals submit false information to the lenders. In exchange for the assistance, the group received a portion of the stolen funds.
“PPP loans were finite funds designed to help businesses stay afloat amid unprecedented times and extraordinary challenges,” U.S. attorney Adair F. Boroughs said in the news release. “Every dollar wrongly taken from…
