A man in his 30s who bought a rare cartoon card with a large sum of money after abusing the U.S. government's emergency loan program for small and medium-sized businesses in response to COVID-19 has been sentenced to prison.
The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia announced on the 8th (local time) that a federal court sentenced 31-year-old Vinas Odomsin, a 31-year-old man, to three years in prison on charges of financial fraud.
According to the indictment, the man applied for an Economic Damage Disaster Loan (EDIL) with the Federal Small Business Administration (SBA) in July 2020 and received a loan of $85,000 (100 million won), of which $57,789 ( 71 million won) was used to purchase rare Pokemon cards.
The Pokemon card he bought is one of the trading cards featuring a cartoon character, and rare cards are being traded at high prices among collectors.
He was found to have falsely reported on his loan application that he had 10 employees and reported annual sales of $235,000.
This loan system, prepared by Congress as part of the 'economic stimulus package', is intended to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in financial difficulties due to the COVID-19 crisis.
Odomshin was sentenced to three years in prison, three years of probation, a $10,000 fine, and an order to return $85,000 (100 million won). confiscated.
The Atlanta branch of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigating the case said, "The COVID-19 disaster relief loan is for business recovery, not for product collection."
According to the Ministry of Justice, in 2020, when the Corona 19 emergency loan system was implemented, there were more than 70 cases of fraudulent loans, and more than 100 people were arrested and prosecuted or sentenced to imprisonment.