Denis Casseus, 44, Cape Coral, was sentenced to two years in federal prison for bank fraud and an illegal monetary transaction as part of a Paycheck Protection Program fraud scheme.
As part of his sentence issued Friday, the court also entered an order of forfeiture in the amount of $298,875, the proceeds of the bank fraud. Casseus plead guilty on May 23.
According to court documents, between February 22 and March 4, 2021, Casseus submitted two fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) applications to a financial institution federally insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) with branches in Lee County.
In each application, Casseus falsely represented that the PPP funds would be used only for business-related purposes, as specified in the loan applications. Casseus falsely represented and certified that the PPP funds acquired from the requested loans would be used to retain workers and maintain payroll or make mortgage payments, lease payments, and utility payments on behalf of his purported businesses.
In total, Casseus’s false and fraudulent representations caused the financial institution to approve and fund a total of $298,875 in PPP loans for his businesses.
On March 4, 2021, Casseus made a wire payment of $110,000 to a title company for the purchase of a residence in Cape Coral. That money was an illegal monetary transaction as Casseus used more than $10,000 in the PPP loan funds towards the purchase of his residence.
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 (NCDF) Hotline via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.
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