Seattle, Washington - A Washington state tech executive was sentenced Tuesday in the Western District of Washington to two years in prison for perpetrating a scheme to fraudulently obtain COVID-19 disaster relief loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration (SBA) through the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) and the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
Mukund Mohan, 48, of Clyde Hill, pleaded guilty to charges of wire fraud and money laundering on March 15. According to court documents, Mohan sought more than $5.5 million through eight fraudulent disaster loan applications. In support of the fraudulent loan applications, Mohan submitted fake and altered documents, including fake federal tax filings and altered incorporation documents. For example, Mohan misrepresented to a lender that, in 2019, his company Mahenjo Inc. had dozens of employees and paid millions of dollars in employee wages and payroll taxes. In support of Mahenjo’s loan application, Mohan submitted false incorporation documents and tax forms suggesting that the company had been in business prior to 2020. In truth, Mohan purchased Mahenjo in May 2020 and at the time he purchased the company, it had no employees and no business activity. The incorporation documents that he submitted to the lender were altered and the federal tax filings he submitted were fake. Five of Mohan’s eight fraudulent loan applications were approved, and he fraudulently obtained nearly $1.8 million in COVID-19 relief funds.
In addition to the prison sentence, Mohan was ordered to pay a fine in the amount of $100,000 and $1,786,357 in restitution.
Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; Acting U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman for the Western District of Washington; Special Agent in Charge Jay Johnson of the Federal Housing Finance Agency Office of Inspector General (FHFA-OIG); Acting Special Agent in Charge Corinne Kalve of IRS-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI); Inspector General J. Russell George of the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA); and Inspector General Jay N. Lerner of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Office of Inspector General (FDIC-OIG), made the announcement.
This case was investigated by FHFA-OIG, IRS-CI, TIGTA, and FDIC-OIG.
Trial Attorney Christopher Fenton of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Friedman of the Western District of Washington are prosecuting the case.
The Fraud Section leads the department’s prosecution of fraud schemes that exploit the PPP. In the months since the PPP began, Fraud Section attorneys have prosecuted more than 100 defendants in more than 70 criminal cases. The Fraud Section has also seized more than $65 million in cash proceeds derived from fraudulently obtained PPP funds, as well as numerous real estate properties and luxury items purchased with such proceeds.
