Date: December 15, 2023 Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov Cincinnati, OH — Herman Brunis and Gina Brunis were indicted on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering by a federal grand jury in the Southern District of Ohio. Herman Brunis and Gina Brunis were arrested by special agents with IRS Criminal Investigation (CI) with assistance from the Blue Ash, Cincinnati and Reading police departments. According to court documents, it is alleged that Herman and Gina Brunis conspired with an individual in Texas to fraudulently obtain and use funds from the Small Business Administrations' Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) program. G Max LLC was incorporated in 2015 in the State of Ohio with Gina Martin, who is also known as Gina Brunis, as the registered agent. G Max Design & Construction was listed as a fictitious name registration in the State of Ohio on or about July 15, 2020. Gina Brunis was listed as the registrant for the business. It is alleged in July and August of 2020 working with the individual in Texas, Herman and Gina Brunis worked together to prepare and electronically submit false EIDL applications for G Max LLC and G Max Design & Construction. The applications contained false gross revenue and false cost of goods sold amounts for the businesses as well as other false representations. The day before the EIDL application was submitted for G Max LLC a business bank account for G Max LLC was opened with Herman and Gina Brunis as the signers. Additionally, in July 2020 a business bank account for G Max Design and Construction was opened with Gina Brunis listed as the owner and Herman Brunis listed as a signer on the account. The two bank accounts received a total of $299,800 as a result of the false EIDL applications. In March 2020, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act). The CARES Act expanded the EIDL Program, which authorized qualifying small businesses to receive loans to help pay fixed debts, payroll, accounts payable, and other bills that could have been paid had the disaster not occurred. Kenneth L. Parker, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio and Bryant Jackson, Special Agent in Charge, IRS Criminal Investigation (CI), Cincinnati Field Office announced the indictment and arrest. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Timothy S. Mangan and was investigated by special agents of CI. An indictment merely contains allegations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law. CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.
