HARRISBURG, Pa. — A Scranton man has been indicted in U.S. Middle District Court with 41 counts of mail fraud, providing false statements to the Small Business Administration, identity theft, unlawful monetary transactions, and witness tampering, U.S. Attorney Gerard M. Karam said Wednesday.
Yoel Weiss, 42, is accused of filing at least seven fraudulent applications for pandemic stimulus funds through the Economic Injury and Disaster Loan program, Karam said in a press release. Weiss owned multiple corporate entities in Pennsylvania and New York at the time.
He is also charged with seven counts of wire fraud and seven counts of making false statements to the U.S. Small Business Administration for the fraudulent applications, along with three counts of aggravated identity theft for using stolen identities to file three other applications, Karam said.
The applications allegedly submitted by Weiss were filed on behalf of corporate entities that did not have actual business operations, and that bore false dates of business establishment, false employee headcount information, and fabricated revenues, costs of goods sold, and lost rental income, according to Karam.
Weiss allegedly obtained more than $850,000 in EIDL funds through the fraudulent applications, which he then spent on unapproved personal expenses, Karam said. He is also charged with 23 counts of making unlawful monetary transactions with the proceeds of his fraud.
Weiss is also accused of threatening and intimidating a witness in an attempt to prevent the witness from testifying before a grand jury, according to Karam.
