NEW ROCHELLE, NY (June 7, 2023) —- Six individuals have been charged with conspiring to commit wire fraud by submitting fraudulent applications for loans from the Paycheck Protection Program administered by the U.S. Small Business Administration.
The conspiracy was led by a pair of men from New York, including Glenroy Walker, 65, of New Rochelle
According to a complaint unsealed yesterday, between July 2020 and February 2022, Walker and Howard Levy, of the Bronx, operated a scheme to submit fraudulent applications for loans from the SBA’s PPP. The PPP was created by Congress to provide forgivable loans to small businesses struggling due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Walker and Levy submitted more than 100 fraudulent PPP loan applications to various financial institutions, containing phony bank statements and tax documents.
Sherril Baez, Norma Getten, Donnat Powell, and Gary Wheeler all participated in this scheme with Walker and Levy by participating in the submission of fraudulent applications for their own purported businesses and recruiting other prospective fraudulent PPP applicants into the scheme. Walker and Levy received significant kickbacks from the applicants and shared portions of their kickbacks with recruiters.
The fraudulent applications submitted by the six defendants collectively sought more than $14.7 million in loans and resulted in the disbursement of more than $4.6 million from various financial institutions, all guaranteed by the SBA.
Walker, 65, of New Rochelle, New York; Levy, 60, of the Bronx; along with Sherril Baez, 50, of Freeport; Norma Getten, 62, of the Bronx; Donnat Powell, 48, of Paterson; and Gary Wheeler 46, of Mount Vernon are each charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud affecting a financial institution. That charge carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison.
Walker and Levy are also charged with a single count of aggravated identity theft.