Florida Man Sentenced to 41 Months For Stealing COVID-19 Relief Funds

DENVER - The United States Attorney's Office for the District of Colorado announces that Fredrick Mendez, 45, of Boca Raton, Florida, was sentenced to 41 months in prison and three years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $1,589,565.75 after pleading guilty to wire fraud.

On March 27, 2020, the President of the United States signed into law the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security ("CARES") Act, which provided emergency assistance to small business owners suffering adverse economic effects caused by the Coronavirus ("COVID-19") pandemic. The CARES Act created Paycheck Protection Program ("PPP"), a program administered by the Small Business Administration that provided loans to small businesses to retain workers, maintain payroll, and certain other expenses consistent with PPP rules. The CARES Act also expanded the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program ("EIDL") to provide funding to help small businesses recover from the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the plea agreement, from approximately March 2020 through November 2021, Mendez prepared and submitted fraudulent EIDL and PPP applications on behalf of the following business entities: SkyWorth Technical Solutions Inc., Northern Technology Inc., Acumen Energy Group Inc., and Acumen Holding Group, LLC. These applications contained materially false statements, including false representations about the entities' number of employees, gross revenues, and cost of goods sold; Mendez further falsely certified that the information provided in the EIDL applications was true and accurate and that the funds would be used for working capital and other normal operating business expenses when, in fact, he used the bulk of the proceeds for his personal benefit.

"This defendant lied and stole government funds meant to help people struggling in the COVID-19 pandemic," said United States Attorney Matt Kirsch. "Our office continues to identify and prosecute people who stole taxpayer dollars during a time of crisis."

"This prison sentence and forfeiture order should serve as another strong deterrent against pandemic-related fraud," said Marc DellaSala, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Secret Service Denver Field Office. "Our pursuit of criminals stealing from government aid programs intended for struggling small businesses and families will not tire. I want to thank the U.S. Attorney's Office and our Pandemic Fraud Task Force partners for their continued dedication to protecting America's financial infrastructure."

The defendant was sentenced by United States District Court Judge S. Kato Crews. The United States Secret Service handled the investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Nicole Cassidy handled the prosecution.

On July 11, 2023, the Attorney General selected the District of Colorado's U.S. Attorney's Office to head one of five national COVID-19 Fraud Strike Force Teams. The Department of Justice established the Strike Force to enhance existing efforts to combat and prevent COVID-19 related financial fraud. The Strike Force combines law enforcement and prosecutorial resources and focuses on large-scale, multistate pandemic relief fraud perpetrated by criminal organizations and transnational actors, as well as those who committed multiple instances of pandemic relief fraud. The Strike Force uses prosecutor-led and data analyst-driven teams to identify and bring to justice those who stole pandemic relief funds. Additional information regarding the Strike Force may be found at https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-results-nationwide-covid-19-fraud-enforcement-action.

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 at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at: https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form