Elk Grove man convicted of defrauding COVID-era program

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - After a three-day trial, a federal jury convicted Oleg Gregorvich Fursov, 52, of Elk Grove, of one count of wire fraud, U.S. Attorney Eric Grant announced.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, in January 2022, Fursov applied for a $1 million Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL), a program administered by the U.S. Small Business Administration to help businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In his application, Fursov falsely certified that he would use the money solely for business purposes. Instead, he gambled more than $442,000 at casinos and paid $100,000 as an unauthorized kickback to a person who assisted with the application. By the time he applied for the $1 million EIDL loan, Fursov had already applied for, received, and gambled tens of thousands of dollars of COVID-era business loans, including Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans and an earlier $150,000 EIDL loan.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Dhruv Sharma, Zachary Malinski and Jessica Delaney are prosecuting the case.

Fursov is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Daniel J. Calabretta on Jan. 14, 2027. Fursov faces a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The actual sentence, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables.

This effort is part of a California COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Strike Force operation, one of five interagency COVID-19 fraud strike force teams established by the U.S. Department of Justice. The California Strike Force combines law enforcement and prosecutorial resources in the Eastern and Central Districts of California and focuses on large-scale, multistate pandemic relief fraud perpetrated by criminal organizations and transnational actors. The strike forces use prosecutor-led and data analyst-driven teams to identify and bring to justice those who stole pandemic relief funds.