Azhar Sarwar Rana, PPP Loan Fraud, New Jersey 2020

Azhar Sarwar Rana, a 30-year-old man from Newton, New Jersey, has been charged with fraudulently obtaining a $5.6 million PPP loan meant to help small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rana, who is the owner of Azhar Sarwar Rana LLC, submitted a fraudulent PPP loan application to a lender in April 2020. The application falsified payroll and tax information and included internally inconsistent listings of the number of company employees. New Jersey Department of Labor records showed that Azhar Sarwar Rana LLC paid no wages in 2019, and the minimal wages it purportedly paid in 2020 were mostly to individuals whose submitted Social Security numbers did not correspond to their submitted names.

The lender, after Rana’s alleged misrepresentations, approved Rana’s PPP loan application and provided Azhar Sarwar Rana LLC with an approximately $5.6 million in federal COVID-19 emergency relief funds meant for distressed small businesses.

Rana used the fraudulently obtained PPP loan proceeds to pay for numerous personal expenses, including to invest millions in the stock market, make a payment to a luxury car dealership, and send hundreds of thousands of dollars to accounts in Pakistan.

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act is a federal law enacted March 29, 2020. It is designed to provide emergency financial assistance to millions of Americans who are suffering the economic effects resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rana was arrested on December 12, 2020, after he booked a same-day flight to Pakistan. He made his initial appearance by videoconference today before U.S. Magistrate Judge James B. Clark III and was detained without bail.

The charges against Rana include one count of bank fraud and one count of money laundering. The count of bank fraud carries a maximum potential penalty of 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine, or twice the gross gain to the defendant or gross loss to the victim, whichever is greater; the count of money laundering carries a maximum potential penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, or twice the gross gain to the defendant or gross loss to the victim, whichever is greater.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Macurdy of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Economic Crimes Unit in Newark.

Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling 1-866-495-6469.

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