Date: July 26, 2023 Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov BOSTON — The owner of a Massachusetts-based food truck business was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Boston for filing fraudulent loan applications in order to obtain $1.5 million in pandemic relief under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act and the American Rescue Plan Act. Loc Vo of Brighton, Mass., was sentenced by U.S. Senior District Court Judge William G. Young to two years in prison and two years of supervised release. Vo was also ordered to pay $1,516,606 in restitution and forfeiture. Vo pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud in January 2023. Vo owned Smart Gourmet LLC (Smart Gourmet), a food truck business in Massachusetts, and Indy Publish, a dormant Maryland company. Between April 2020 and July 2021, Vo submitted loan applications on behalf of these businesses under three Small Business Administration pandemic relief programs: the Paycheck Protection Program, the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program and the Restaurant Revitalization Fund. In these applications, Vo requested approximately $1.5 million and committed to use the funds for rent, mortgage interest, payroll and utilities, among other eligible expenses. After receiving the relief funds, Vo immediately transferred most of them to brokerage accounts in his name to purchase shares in an electric car manufacturer, an internet marketplace company and a biotechnology company, among others. The CARES Act is a federal law enacted on March 29, 2020, designed to provide emergency financial assistance to the millions of Americans who are suffering the economic effects caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. One source of relief provided by the CARES Act was the authorization of forgivable loans to small businesses for job retention and certain approved expenses, through the PPP. Another is the EIDL, through which the SBA offers loans that can only be used on certain permissible business expenses, which can include payment of fixed business debts, payroll, accounts payable, and other business-related expenses that could have been paid had the COVID-19 disaster not occurred. The American Rescue Plan Act established the RRF to provide funding to help restaurants and other eligible businesses keep their doors open through forgivable loans for eligible uses. Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy; Harry Chavis, Jr., Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation in Boston; Christopher DiMenna, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorney Benjamin A. Saltzman of the Securities, Financial & Cyber Fraud Unit prosecuted the case.
