By SDCN Staff
A California CEO was sentenced Thursday to 46 months in prison and ordered to pay $6,993,700 in restitution and $535,041 in forfeiture for his role in defrauding the Small Business Administration out of millions of dollars in loans through the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program.
According to court documents, from March 2020 through October 2022, Abraham Park, 67, of La Mirada, California, submitted over 120 fraudulent applications to the Small Business Administration for Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program loans on behalf of himself and others, which resulted in a total funded and unfunded loss of over $12 million.
Park was the owner and CEO of a California financial services company that assisted clients with obtaining financing, including loans, and repairing credit scores. After the COVID-19 pandemic started, Park advised his clients to create fictitious corporate entities so that he could submit fraudulent EIDL loan applications to the SBA on their behalf. In return, his clients paid Park a portion of the funded loans as a kickback. In addition to submitting applications for his clients, Park also submitted several applications for himself and his family members for fictitious entities. In total, 73 fraudulent loans were funded, which resulted in a nearly $7 million loss to the SBA.
On March 20, Park pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering.
