After perpetrating fraud linked to financial aid during the Covid-19 pandemic, Patrick Parker Walsha Florida businessman, is serving a five-and-a-half-year sentence in federal prison for stealing nearly $8,000,000 in federal COVID-19 relief funds, a portion of which he used to acquire a private island. The latter, of 8,000 square meters, has an approximate commercial value of US$800,000.
The private island, which became part of their ostentatious lifestyle after the diversion of resources, is located a mile off the coast of Yankeetown, in the Gulf of Florida. Walsh, 42, of Williston, Florida, was sentenced in January 2023 after pleading guilty to a one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering in connection with pandemic relief funds.
Walsh’s story is that of an individual who took advantage of opportunities provided by government financial aid programs, but fraudulently. Between April 7, 2020 and January 21, 2021, Walsh submitted a total of 16 fraudulent applications to multiple federally insured financial institutions and other qualified lenders to obtain Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans on behalf of various businesses, including his Levy County-based advertising balloon companies.
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The intricate network of funds diversion of the fraudster who bought a private island
Walsh’s fake applications included significant discrepanciessuch as the inclusion of non-existent employees, the manipulation of the number of employees, and the inclusion of companies that did not even exist before February 15, 2020, the start date of the pandemic relief programs.
Total, Walsh’s fraudulent applications sought to obtain $11,950,000 in PPP funds, of which he received US$4,996,000. Additionally, between March 2020 and July 2020, he submitted 18 fraudulent applications to the Small Business Administration (SBA) for Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) in both his name and his wife’s name. obtaining US$2,822,000.
The fraud did not stop at obtaining funds; Walsh also carried out numerous monetary transactions, including the purchase of real estate in Florida and Texasoil leases and the payment of mortgage loans, all using more than US$10,000 of the fraudulently obtained funds.
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