A U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer was arrested after he allegedly used two sham businesses to illegally request and receive nearly $150,000 from a COVID-19 pandemic relief program intended for small-business owners, authorities said this week.
Amer Aldarawsheh, 45, was indicted Wednesday on five counts of wire fraud. He is accused of intentionally misleading the U.S. Small Business Administration and mishandling loan funds, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
He has pleaded not guilty.
In 2020 and 2021, prosecutors say, the Moreno Valley man applied for loans under the SBA’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan program on behalf of two businesses: Nahar Enterprises Inc., which was described as a San Bernardino-based trucking and freight company; and Ameral, a purported automotive repair company.
However, investigators later found that neither company had “substantial business or employees,” according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office.
“Aldarawsheh knowingly misappropriated and misused the EIDL funds he received from the SBA for his own personal benefit,” federal prosecutors alleged in the statement, citing a December 2020 transfer of almost $150,000 in loan funds to a bank account they said was “under his control.”
Aldarawsheh, who is facing a sentence of up to 20 years in federal prison, was released on $30,000 bond, authorities said. A representative from U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not immediately respond to a request for comment about his employment status.
The Small Business Administration has estimated that, in an effort to more quickly distribute relief, it gave out more than $200 billion in potentially fraudulent funds through its COVID-19-era disaster loan programs.
