Florida Man Arrested For Buying $318K Lamborghini With Coronavirus Relief Funds
Apparently, six-figure supercars aren’t permissible expenses under the Small Business Administration’s Payroll Protection Program.
A Florida man has been arrested and charged with fraud after (allegedly) spending COVID-19 relief loan money on a brand new Lamborghini Huracan Evo, among other extravagant items.
Miami resident David T. Hines, owner of four South Florida moving businesses, received nearly $3.9 million in three different loans under the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Payroll Protection Program (PPP). He had applied for seven PPP loans totaling $13.5 million through the Bank of America, claiming that the money would be used to cover a 70-employee monthly payroll of $4 million.
The Tampa Bay Times reports that properly used PPP loans are forgiven by the government, with the intention of easing economic burden on small businesses during the coronavirus pandemic. Unfortunately for Hines, the $318,497 he spent on the Italian supercar doesn’t qualify as permissible purchase under the SBA’s terms. Neither do dating sites, jewelry, clothes or luxury hotel stays that Hines reportedly splurged on.
https://twitter.com/LaurenPozenWSB/status/1288074390018707456
Federal investigators linked the Lambo to Hines after he was involved in a hit-and-run accident on July 11. It was then discovered that Hines’ companies show monthly revenue and expenses averaging about $200,000 — “far less than the millions of dollars in payroll that Hines sought in the PPP applications,” reads a criminal affidavit.
“Those purported employees either did not exist or earned a fraction of what Hines claimed in his PPP applications. Collectively, Hines falsely claimed his companies paid millions of dollars in payroll in the first quarter of 2020. State and bank records, however, show little to no payroll expense during this period.”
Hines hadn’t blown through all of the loan money, as authorities seized the Lambo and $3.4 million from various bank accounts at the time of his arrest, reports CBS News. He was released on a $100,000 bond and will be allowed to stay at his mother’s home with a GPS monitor before his arraignment, which is scheduled for Oct. 14.