Irvine man sentenced to seven years in prison over COVID business loan scheme – Orange County Register

An Irvine man has been sentenced to seven years in federal prison and ordered to pay compensation after pleading guilty to a plot to receive more than $2 million in fraudulent funds for disaster relief companies during the height of COVID -19 pandemic, federal prosecutors announced Monday, February 13.

Jeffrey Scott Hedges, 51, was convicted on Jan. 30 after pleading guilty in August to counts of conspiracy to wire fraud at a financial institution and aggravated identity theft for making fraudulent claims for disaster relief funds.

From April 2020 to January 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice said Hedges planned to fraudulently withdraw Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster funds through programs enacted by Congress to help companies survive the pandemic obtain loan. Hedges is accused of filing more than a dozen applications containing falsified tax returns and payslips. The funds were then used to make mortgage payments, pay for living and medical expenses and buy luxury vehicles, prosecutors said.

In a related case, a Ventura man, 51-year-old Manuel Asadurian, was sentenced Monday to 51 months in prison. He also has to pay more than $1 million in compensation. Asadurian pleaded guilty to a count of wire fraud involving a financial institution last year.