MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich. – A Macomb County woman will spend time in a federal prison for her role in a multimillion-dollar Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) fraud scheme.
According to authorities, Rita Shaba worked with Samer Kammo and Christina Anasi to submit fraudulent PPP applications for several businesses. They misrepresented payroll information and falsely certified that the loan funds would be used for permissible business-related purposes.
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They submitted fictitious payroll, health insurance, bank, and tax records to support the PPP loan applications.
Together, they received over $3 million in fraudulent PPP loan funds. Law enforcement has seized and recovered more than $2.1 million of those funds so far.
All three were initially charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, false statements in connection with a bank loan, and aggravated identity theft.
All three pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit wire fraud and bank fraud.
On Wednesday, Jan. 14, Shaba was sentenced to 27 months in federal prison. She is also ordered to pay $3,294,798.50 in restitution.
Kammo and Anasi are still awaiting sentencing.