Federal prosecutors announced charges Friday against a dozen members of the Florida-based Hood Boys, accusing the gang of fraudulently applying for pandemic small business loans, then spending the money at gun and liquor stores.
The 12 submitted fraudulent applications claimed they operated small businesses, then collected a total of $236,000 in taxpayer money under the Paycheck Protection Program.
Rather than use the money to maintain businesses, as the program was designed to do, they spent it on car payments and clothing and at gun and liquor stores, prosecutors alleged.
The Hood Boys, also known as the Deuce Boys, claimed to own small businesses and aggrandized their incomes in order to obtain the loans.
They ranged from $13,854 to $20,416.
Some of the 12 applied for loan forgiveness — which the government granted. Others simply defaulted on the loans, prosecutors said.
They face wire fraud charges.
The case was pursued by the FBI, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Labor Department’s inspector general operating as an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force.
Prosecutors have won pandemic program fraud convictions against gang members from California to Louisiana to New York.
In Wisconsin, federal prosecutors said members of the Wild 100s gang stole millions of dollars and used the money to buy drugs and guns and to arrange a murder-for-hire.
For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.
