A Miami-Dade police officer has pleaded guilty to a $275,000 COVID-19 relief loan fraud
A Miami-Dade police officer revived a dead company to use as the business vessel for a $275,479 COVID-19 relief loan fraud. That’s in Samuel Harris’ admission of facts with Friday’s guilty plea to one count of wire fraud.
Harris, 43, will learn his sentence at 8:30 a.m. Sept. 25 from Federal Judge Robert Scola in Miami’s Wilkie D. Ferguson U.S. Courthouse.
“It infuriates me to learn that one of my officers was arrested for fraud,” Miami-Dade Police Director Alfredo “Freddy” Ramirez III said. “The action of this officer not only violated the trust of the community, but took advantage of a system that was in place to help businesses in need due to COVID-19. My officers are held to the highest standards of professionalism, accountability, and ethical conduct. I have complete confidence that the United States Attorney’s Office has conducted a thorough investigation into the matter.”
Miami-Dade police said Harris, who was charged May 3, had been with the agency for four years, 10 months, and worked uniform patrol out of the Kendall District office. Before the year of his fraud, OpenPayrolls.com says, Harris made $71,772 in 2019.
Then, came 2020 and the COVID pandemic.
Oregen Digital and Harris’ fraud scheme
Harris registered Oregen Digital with the state on Sept. 22, 2015, state records say. In 2016, Harris let the company be dissolved administratively by not filing the annual paperwork.
But, with COVID-19 spreading and the government offering relief loans via the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) programs, Harris reinstated Oregen Digital on June 15, 2020. Harris also opened Oregen’s first corporate bank account for which he was the only signatory, his admission of facts says.
When Harris filed for a PPP loan on June 29, he claimed on a faux IRS Form W-3 that Oregen employed 10 people and paid them $602,781 in 2019. That turned into PPP loan proceeds of $125,579, money that went into Oregon’s account.
The next day, Harris filed an EIDL application that claimed Oregen had 10 employees and grossed $859,480 in revenues from Feb. 1, 2019, through Jan. 31, 2020. That got Oregen a $10,000 advance on what would be a total of $149,900 in EIDL money.
IRS-Criminal Investigations, the Small Business Administration Office of the Inspector General and the FBI Miami Area Corruption Task Force, including Miami-Dade police professional compliance bureau officers, handled the investigation. The Miami-Dade County Office of the Inspector General helped with the prosecution, which was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Edward N. Stamm.
