Little Valley Grifter Swindles $1M in COVID Relief

BUFFALO, NY – Adam Arena, 44, of Little Valley, New York, is facing serious time after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and engaging in monetary transactions with criminally derived proceeds. Arena bilked the COVID-19 Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) out of nearly $1 million, according to U.S. Attorney Trini E. Ross.

The scheme, laid bare by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Laura A. Higgins and Cory E. Jacobs, involved resurrecting Arena’s defunct business, ADA Auto Group, which hadn’t seen activity since 2018. Arena then fed the system his personal details – date of birth, social security number, address – alongside ADA Auto Group’s documentation, all to facilitate a fraudulent PPP loan application. His co-defendant, Amanda J. Gloria, submitted the application on July 27th, requesting a whopping $954,000.

The application was a house of cards. Gloria backed it up with falsified tax forms and payroll reports, claiming ADA Auto Group employed 50 people and boasted an annual payroll exceeding $4.4 million in 2019 – a blatant fabrication. On August 10, 2020, Arena didn’t waste time, directing the financial institution to wire the approved funds directly into a business account he controlled exclusively. The money wasn’t going to employees or business expenses. It was going straight into his pocket.

The greed didn’t stop there. Just over a month later, on September 11, 2020, Arena rewarded Gloria with $24,135 in PPP funds for her role in the scam. Not a single cent of the nearly $1 million Arena received was used for legitimate business purposes. This wasn’t about saving jobs; it was about lining pockets during a national crisis.

Arena now faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and a $1,000,000 fine. Charges against Amanda J. Gloria remain pending. This case is a stark reminder of the widespread fraud that plagued the COVID-19 relief programs, and the Department of Justice is actively pursuing those who exploited the CARES Act for personal gain. The Fraud Section has already prosecuted over 100 defendants in more than 70 cases, seizing over $65 million in fraudulently obtained funds.

The CARES Act, enacted on March 29, 2020, was intended to provide a lifeline to struggling Americans. The PPP component authorized nearly $350 billion in forgivable loans to small businesses. But for criminals like Arena, it was simply an opportunity to steal. Anyone with information regarding COVID-19 fraud can report it to the Justice Department’s National Center for Disaster Fraud Hotline at 866-720-5721 or through their online complaint form: https://www.justice.gov/dis.