He lied to get $2.6M in COVID loans — and paid his taxes with it, feds in Georgia say
Update: Anthony J. Boncimino was sentenced to three years in federal prison and ordered to pay $802,321 on March 16, 2022. The government also seized $507,556 in funds from his accounts. The original story is below.
A small business owner in Georgia reportedly told federal investigators it was easy to get COVID-19 relief money through the Paycheck Protection Program during the pandemic — all he had to do was just keep “clicking on the buttons,” prosecutors said.
Now the 47-year-old man is facing prison time and could owe the government over half a million dollars.
Anthony J. Boncimino, of Sycamore, Georgia, pleaded guilty on Monday to one count of money laundering, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Middle District of Georgia said in a news release. Sycamore is a small town of roughly 1,000 residents about 87 miles south of Macon.
Boncimino owned a moving company in Sycamore and is accused of fabricating two other businesses to apply for PPP loans totaling more than $2.6 million. He then used a portion of the money to pay state and federal taxes, prosecutors said.
“Greed has no place in SBA’s programs that are intended to provide assistance to the nation’s small businesses struggling with the pandemic challenges,” Special Agent in Charge Amaleka McCall-Brathwaite said in the release. “Fraudsters attempting to gain access to economic stimulus funds will be met with justice.”
A defense attorney representing Boncimino did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment on Wednesday.
According to court filings, Boncimino first applied for a COVID-19 relief loan in April 2020 on behalf of his moving company, Precision Movers Inc. But prosecutors said he lied in the application about having 44 employees and $266,793 in monthly payroll expenses.
Boncimino ultimately received a PPP loan for $666,983 — about $273,400 of which he gave to the Georgia Departments of Labor and Revenue for taxes, the government said.
Prosecutors said he received a second PPP loan totaling $666,983 for Precision Movers in February this year.
Boncimino also invented two businesses called Meridian Park Ventures and Oak Harbor Investments, according to court filings. Prosecutors said the companies were created after Feb. 15, 2020 and “existed only on paper.”
In his application, Boncimino said Meridian Park Ventures had 44 workers and $286,502 in monthly payroll expenses, landing him a PPP loan for $716,255. He also received a $621,650 PPP loan for Oak Harbor Investments based on similar lies, prosecutors said.
Boncimino then funneled the money into other bank accounts he controlled, the government said. He is accused of spending a large chunk of both PPP loans on taxes and credit card bills.
According to the plea agreement, investigators caught up to Boncimino in April and he admitted to fabricating the two businesses. He also said he used online software to create fake payroll records and that he gave some of the money from the PPP loans back to the bank.
The people listed on his payroll records were all former employees or members of the community who “were unaware that their personal identification information was being used to obtain PPP loans,” prosecutors said.
He reportedly told investigators getting the money was easy on the loan websites but that he wasn’t “out buying expensive items.”
He “just wanted a safety net for his family and his moving business,” Boncimino reportedly said.
Court filings show he was arrested at the end of May and a grand jury indicted him in June.
Prosecutors have said they will seek an order of forfeiture totaling $507,556, and Boncimino faces up to 10 years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines when he’s sentenced in February.
This story was originally published November 10, 2021 at 10:54 AM with the headline "He lied to get $2.6M in COVID loans — and paid his taxes with it, feds in Georgia say."
