For using COVID-19 relief monies from the government to purchase a Bentley, a luxurious condominium, and cosmetic operations, a Miami real estate agent was given a prison term.
Miami real estate broker Daniela Rendon (Photo: India Today)
According to Blaze Media, the Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loans allowed Daniela Rendon to obtain $381,000 through her businesses Rendon PA and Rendon Holdings, according to the U.S. Southern District of Florida’s legal office.
She is charged with inflating her real estate business’s payroll, employees, and revenue in order to be eligible for PPP loans. She is also suspected of filing false IRS tax returns.
A Miami real estate agent who defrauded the government of $381,000 in COVID relief funds and spent the money on a Bentley, a lavish condominium, and cosmetic surgery was given a three-and-a-half year prison sentence.
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Daniela Rendon, 31, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud in April after being indicted in February on six further counts of wire fraud, two counts of money laundering, and one count of aggravated identity theft.
According to New York Post, the extra charges were ultimately dropped by the prosecution.
According to the Miami Herald, Rendon, a mother of three and native of Colombia, claimed that her actions had been “motivated by insatiable greed” during her sentencing in Miami federal court on Thursday because it felt like “everybody” at the time was unlawfully obtaining COVID-19 relief loans.
However, once authorities discovered Rendon had been abusing the loan programs, the former “Ultra Luxury” real estate agent understood she had actually been hurting “countless individuals and businesses” that had been hit hard by a “unprecedented period of economic distress,” rather than “faceless entities of the U.S. government.”
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