Trucking news and briefs for Tuesday, June 28, 2022:
Semsi Salja and Anes Suhonjic, the owners of 47-truck, Grand Rapids, Michigan-based general freight carrier DMR Transportation, pleaded guilty in federal court earlier this month to conspiring to commit bank fraud in connection with a $290,855 loan under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).
In a related civil case, DMR, Salja and Suhonjic agreed to pay a total of $1 million, including a substantial civil monetary penalty under the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act (FIRREA).
In 2020, Congress enacted the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (the CARES Act) to provide emergency federal assistance for the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Through the PPP, the CARES Act authorized forgivable loans to small businesses for job retention and certain other expenses.
In its second-draw PPP loan application, the Department of Justice said DMR knowingly and falsely certified that it suffered the required 25% reduction in gross receipts between the second financial quarter of 2019 and the second financial quarter of 2020. DMR also allegedly submitted falsified quarterly balance sheets and other false financial records that were signed by Salja and Suhonjic alongside the application.
In September 2021, DMR sought forgiveness of its second-draw PPP loan by falsely certifying that its second-draw PPP loan proceeds were used to pay eligible business expenses when, in fact, DMR held that money in reserve, DOJ added.
“The PPP involved a limited pool of funds to help small businesses wracked by the disruption of a global pandemic,” United States Attorney Mark Totten said. “By fraudulently obtaining a second PPP loan, DMR took, for itself, hundreds of thousands of dollars that could have been used to help deserving companies. My office will continue to aggressively investigate and prosecute these cases.”
