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Posted: 09/15/2021 / 5:35 PM CDT
Updated: 9/15/2021 / 5:35 p.m. CDT
ATLANTA (AP) – A former performer on the reality television show Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta has been charged with conspiracy and wire fraud related to a Ponzi scheme and related charges related to a fraudulent paycheck protection program for more than 17 years Federal prison convicted loan application submitted.
US District Judge Mark H. Cohen sentenced Maurice Fayne, also known as Arkansas Mo, to 17 and a half years in prison and five years supervised release. Fayne, 38, of Dacula, Georgia, was also asked to pay the victims nearly $ 4.5 million in compensation.
Fayne pleaded guilty on May 11th. These included bank fraud charges and misrepresentation against a financial institution in connection with a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan application.
“Fayne planned to use the PPP program as a cover for his long-running Ponzi program,” said incumbent US attorney Kurt R. Erskine in a press release on Wednesday. “The funds provided by the program serve as the lifeline for many companies desperately trying to stay afloat during the pandemic, and unfortunately, its fraud has helped deplete those precious dollars.”
Erskine said from March 2013 to May 2020, Fayne ran a transnational Ponzi program that scammed more than 20 people who invested in his trucking business. Instead of using investors’ money to run the business, he used the funds to pay off personal debts and expenses and fund a flamboyant lifestyle, Erskine said.
During the plan, Fayne spent more than $ 5 million at a casino in Oklahoma, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia said.
In April 2020, Fayne submitted a $ 3.7 million loan application to the United Community Bank, falsely claiming that his trucking company had 107 employees and an average monthly payroll of $ 1.4 million.
Prosecutors said that instead of using the money to keep workers and other business expenses, Fayne said that they would cover expenses including $ 40,000 for overdue child support, $ 50,000 for reimbursement owed in a previous fraud case, $ 85,000 for custom jewelry, $ 136,000 to lease a Rolls-Royce, and $ 907,000 to start a new business in Arkansas.
Fayne appeared in season 8 of VH1’s Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta as the love interest of longtime cast member Karlie Redd.
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