A Southern Oregon restaurant was sentenced in federal court last week for stealing more than $759,000 in federal funds intended to help small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the US Attorney's Office for the District of Oregon, Amigos Mexican Cuisine and Cantina, LLC, formerly located outside Medford, was sentenced to pay $759,100 in restitution to the US Small Business Administration plus a criminal fine of $200,000.
In a separate civil proceeding, Amigos was ordered to pay $1.6 million to settle a related False Claims Act allegation.
According to court documents, Amigo submitted five fraudulent loan applications to steal more than $759,000 from three COVID-19 pandemic relief programs during a 13-month period beginning in April 2020. The swindled programs were identifies as the Paycheck Protection Program, Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program, and the Restaurant Revitalization Fund.
Prosecutors said Amigos made numerous false statements on these applications including claiming its owner did not own other businesses, providing inaccurate company financials, and falsely attesting that the company was not engaged in any illegal activity.
The company further falsely claimed on a loan forgiveness application that it had used the funds received for payroll. In reality, each time the company received a disbursement of federal funds, its owners would transfer the money to their personal bank accounts for use on various personal expenses.
On April 29th of this year, Amigos pleaded guilty to a one-count criminal information charging the company with stealing public money. The case was investigated by the SBA Office of Inspector General and US Postal Inspection Service.
