An Orange County man who owned Riverside and Anaheim businesses has been indicted on wire fraud and money laundering charges alleging he obtained fraudulent COVID-19 disaster loans, federal authorities announced Wednesday.
According to court documents, from May 2020 to December 2021, Aliso Viejo resident Mehrdad “Mitch” Tabrizi submitted two fraudulent applications for Paycheck Protection Program loans — a federal program created to provide financial assistance to Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic — on behalf of his Riverside business Life Fleet Inc., a medical transportation company, seeking over $695,000 in loans.
In the applications for the loans, Tabrizi claimed the business had at least 54 employees and more than $139,000 in monthly payroll costs.
“After receiving the PPP funds, Tabrizi allegedly used the proceeds for personal expenses,” said a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
He also filed a false claim for an Economic Injury Disaster Loan claiming that the company had revenue of more than $4 million and 63 employees, the news release said.
“However, Life Fleet allegedly was not in business, had no revenue and had no employees,” said the news release.
Additionally, prosecutors said Tabrizi filed another fraudulent EIDL application in the name of Resonante Group Inc., an Anaheim-based company he controlled.
The application falsely stated that the company had revenue of more than $19 million and over 300 employees, prosecutors said. As a result, the Small Business Administration deposited $319,800 into accounts controlled by Tabrizi, which he then used for personal expenses, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Tabrizi has previously been charged with tax evasion and filing false tax returns involving SoCal Medical Transportation Inc., a Riverside-based company.
Prosecutors said that in 2015 and 2016, Tabrizi allegedly deposited approximately $2.6 million of income into a bank account but did not disclose the deposit to the CPA firm he hired to prepare SoCal Medical’s corporate tax returns. Instead, Tabrizi allegedly informed the CPA firm that these funds had been received by a separate business.
If convicted, Tabrizi could face up to 20 years in prison for each of four counts of wire fraud, 10 counts for each of four counts of money laundering, five years for each of two counts of tax evasion and three years for each of two counts of filling false tax returns.
