MIAMI – A South Florida tax preparer received nearly $ 1 million in coronavirus relief funds after submitting more than 100 fraudulent claims for himself and others, prosecutors said federal.

Leonel Rivero, 35, of Miami, was charged Tuesday with wire fraud, court records show. His first appearance in federal court in Miami is scheduled for next Tuesday.

Rivero owned a tax preparation business and submitted around 118 fraudulent loan applications on behalf of himself and his accomplices, according to the criminal complaint. Those loan requests totaled more than $ 2.3 million, and Rivero and his accomplices received about $ 975,582, investigators said. On each loan application, Rivero falsified the applicant’s income and expenses from the previous year and submitted fraudulent tax forms to the IRS, officials said.

Court records online did not mention a lawyer for Rivero.

The Paycheque Protection Program represents billions of dollars in repayable small business loans for Americans struggling due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s part of the coronavirus relief program that became federal law last March.

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