On Thursday, the Justice Department said that the National Football League (NFL) wide receiver Joshua Bellamy is dealing with a slate of scam accused of using Coronavirus relief funds for his personal use.
Earlier this week, Joshua Bellamy was cut by the New York Jets and charged with fire fraud in the Southern District of Florida, conspiracy to admit wire fraud, and bank fraud. Moreover, Bellamy allegedly, for his firm (Drip Entertainment LLC), got a Paycheck Protection Program loan of around 1,246,565 dollars, and consumed above than 104,000 dollars on the luxury goods, such as Gucci, Dior, and many jewelers, the department says.
Former Bears player Joshua Bellamy has been charged with fraudulently obtaining $1.2 million in coronavirus relief funds through the Paycheck Protection Program and using the money on a visit to a hotel and casino, and luxury goods. https://t.co/XPj2BkNx3G
— CBS Chicago (@cbschicago) September 10, 2020
Moreover, the Justice Department, in a news release, described that the scheme initiated when an associate of Joshua Bellamy had gained a fake PPP loan for his talent management firm using forged documents.
The release stated that after submitting the application, the firm then started to operate with other co-conspirators, including Joshua Bellamy, on that scheme to apply the number of fake PPP loan applications for confederate the relief fund loan applicants, to get kickbacks for getting the forgivable loans for them. Furthermore, when a media company, CNN, reached Jets, then he described that Josh is no longer with them.
Source: Web
Bellamy’s lawyers: Joshua is an innocent man
Joshua Bellamy’s lawyer, Diego Weiner and Jeff, in an email, described that the case is at the initial stage. Lawyers said that Joshua Bellamy is a good and decent person, who is supposed innocent by their laws. They added that they hope that the people will give him the advantage of the doubt at this time. Mostly, professional athletes have gotten the advantage by the public, which is supposedly acting on their behalf as advisors or agents. They continued that they will get more as the case shows progresses.
In March, the White House and the Congress had passed an unbelievable and record-breaking 2 trillion dollars package to help the economic disturbance caused by the pandemic Coronavirus. Also, the federal relief fund, which included forgivable loans in the PPP scheme, organized to keep afloat little businesses that got damaged by the health crisis.
Earlier Thursday, the Criminal Division of the Justice Department announced that they had charged above fifty people for fake applying for PPP loans to line their pockets.
