Ex-President of Florida Democratic Black Caucus Admits To $300,000 COVID Relief Fraud
November 3, 2021Miami, Florida – Today, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 28-year-old Fort Lauderdale, Florida resident Damara Holness pled guilty to a one-count information charging her with lying on a coronavirus relief loan application and fraudulently obtaining hundreds of thousands of dollars intended to help small businesses financially survive the Covid-19 pandemic.
As part of her guilty plea, Holness admitted that in June 2020, she applied for a $300,000 forgivable, federally-guaranteed Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan on behalf of Holness Consulting, Inc., a Florida company that she owned. To justify the requested loan amount,
Holness claimed in the on-line loan application, and through supporting fraudulent payroll tax forms, that her company employed 18 people and spent an average of $120,000 each month on payroll. In fact, Holness Consulting had zero employees and no payroll expenses. A bank endorsed by the Small Business Administration to fund PPP loans approved Holness Consulting’s PPP loan application based on the lies and wired $300,000 to the company’s bank account in Florida.
Once the money hit the bank account in July 2020, Holness spent the next few months creating a paper trail to make it appear as if Holness Consulting had employees and was spending the PPP money on legitimate, approved expenses . . .
https://breaking911.com/ex-president-of-florida-democratic-black-caucus-admits-to-300000-covid-relief-fraud/
A business somewhere in Florida was forced to shut its doors for good after their PPP loan request was denied due to lack of funds.
