Former Revere resident sentenced for $2.5 million Covid-relief fraud, ordered to pay restitution

Maria Papadopoulos
·2 min read
4

A former Revere resident and business owner was sentenced Wednesday in connection with filing fraudulent applications to obtain $2.5 million in federal Paycheck Protection Program loan funds resulting from the Covid pandemic.

Vinicius Santana, 35, who now lives in Boca Raton, Florida, then misused that Covid-relief money to buy real estate and cars and to invest in cryptocurrency, prosecutors said.

Santana was sentenced by U.S. District Court Chief Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV to 29 months in prison and three years of supervised release, Acting U.S. Attorney Josh Levy said in a statement.

Santana was also ordered to pay restitution of $2.5 million and forfeiture.

In September 2022, Santana pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of unlawful monetary transactions. He owned Complete Home Care, LLC, a painting company in Massachusetts.

In April 2020, Santana submitted several different PPP loan applications on behalf of his painting company, Levy said. In the initial applications, Santana listed five employees and an average monthly payroll of between $10,000 and $18,000. These applications were denied. In the fourth application for his company, Santana falsely claimed to have 154 employees and an average monthly payroll of $1 million.

On May 11, 2020, a bank issued Santana’s company a $2.5 million loan based on the false representations in the fourth application.

After receiving the funds, Santana misused the loan proceeds to buy real estate and cars and to invest in cryptocurrency.

The federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act was enacted on March 29, 2020 to provide emergency financial assistance to the millions of Americans who are suffering the economic effects caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. One source of relief provided by the CARES Act was the authorization of forgivable loans to small businesses for job retention and certain approved expenses, through the PPP.

Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form.

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