Culver City Restauranteur Sentenced to Nearly 3½ Years in Federal Prison for Fraudulently Obtaining Over $4 Million in COVID Business Loans

SANTA ANA, California - A Culver City restauranteur who owns a hospitality company that has developed restaurants and hotels in California, Tennessee, and Kentucky was sentenced today to 41 months in federal prison for fraudulently obtaining more than $4 million COVID-19 economic-relief loans.

Philip Frederick Camino, 46, was sentenced by United States District Judge Fred W. Slaughter, who also ordered him to pay $4,365,667 in restitution. At the conclusion of today's hearing, Camino was remanded into federal custody.

Camino pleaded guilty in August 2024 to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

During the spring of 2020, Congress created two federal programs to provide financial assistance to Americans and businesses suffering economic harm because of the COVID-19 pandemic: Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL).

From April 2020 to April 2021, Camino, who owned several companies based in Hollywood, Westwood, Studio City, and Beverly Hills as well as in Arizona, submitted and caused to be submitted false and fraudulent applications to the United States Small Business Administration (SBA) and banks for PPP and EIDL loans.

In these applications, Camino made false statements, including inflating the number of employees, providing fictitious federal tax forms that were never filed with the IRS, and falsely certifying that the loan proceeds would be used for permissible business purposes. In total, Camino submitted more than 20 fraudulent loan applications from which he obtained more than $4 million.

Homeland Security Investigations, the FBI, and IRS Criminal Investigation investigated this matter.

On April 7, the Department of Justice announced the creation of the National Fraud Enforcement Division. The Fraud Division is laser-focused on investigating and prosecuting those who commit fraud against the American people. The Department's work to combat fraud supports President Trump's Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, a whole-of-government effort chaired by Vice President J.D. Vance to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse within Federal benefit programs.

Chief Assistant United States Attorney and Chief of the Criminal Division Jennifer L. Waier prosecuted this case.