Man uses Rs282m Covid loan to buy Lamborghini, Rolex, gets 9 years in jail

A man was sentenced to nine years in prison for fraudulently claiming $1.6 million (Rs282.4 million) in Covid relief loans to buy a new Lamborghini and other luxury items.

30-year-old Lee Price III borrowed the huge amount from the US government on the pretext of using the funds for his business. However, he squandered the money on a series of luxury purchases including Lamborghini.

He received all the money under the Paycheck Protection Programme (PPP) that was brought in by Congress last year to support people and businesses affected by the pandemic.

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He submitted PPP applications to different banks to borrow the funds. Many of them rejected his applications while some approved the loan.

He said in the applications that he owned a company named Price Enterprises having 50 employees and an average monthly payroll of $375,000.

His plan to have a life of opulence turned out to be short-lived as he was caught in an inspection.

Prince was sentenced to 110 months in prison on charges of money laundering and wire fraud.

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It transpired during the inspection that Price’s alleged business had no recorded employees or revenue. The fraud came to the fore after he had already gotten $9,37,500.

He used the money to buy a Rolex watch, a Lamborghini Urus, and Ford F-350 among other luxury items.

More than $7,00,000 of the total loan amount have been recovered from Price.