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Law360, New York (April 22, 2021, 4:15 PM EDT) -- Three men used two companies, including an Africa-focused online retailer, as conduits to fraudulently apply for $14 million in loans for businesses hit hard by COVID-19, ultimately raking in $4 million before they were arrested, according to an indictment unsealed Thursday in Manhattan federal court.
In a case pending before U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer, defendants Apocalypse Bella, Mackenzy Toussaint and Amos Mundendi are charged with four counts each of conspiracy and fraud for allegedly receiving millions and engaging in "large transfers of funds" abroad last year.
The three men and others targeted the Small Business Administration's coronavirus pandemic programs — the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan — using two unnamed straw companies to make their applications, according to the indictment.
Bella transferred more than $729,000 into an account he controlled, while Toussaint moved $138,000 into one of his accounts, the indictment says. Other money was transferred aboard and into an investment account, the indictment says.
One of the companies described in the indictment, based in New York City, seeks to sell branded products in the United States via online retailers and also has a focus on building "commodities processing facilities" in Africa. The company's president is described as a co-conspirator in a complaint also unsealed Thursday.
A company that exactly matches that description is Go Africa Global LLC. A request for comment from that company was not immediately returned Thursday.
An allegedly fraudulent paycheck protection loan application from July said the company had 100 employees, while an earlier 2020 application said it only had four employees, according to the charging documents.
Less information is listed in the complaint about a second alleged straw company, although a "business partner" of the alleged co-conspirator from the first company owns it, according to the complaint.
Bella, 36, of Clackamas, Oregon, also goes by Dias Yumba; Toussaint, 39, of Irving, Texas, also goes by "Mack"; and Mundendi, 32, of Dallas also goes by "Mos" and El Ashile Mundi, according to the indictment.
Toussaint and Mundendi are expected to appear in the near future in the Northern District of Texas, and Bella was arrested March 18 in Virginia, the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement.
"These defendants now face a personal reckoning — the result of which may be an extended stay in federal prison for each of them," FBI Assistant Director in Charge William F. Sweeney Jr. said in a statement.
Counsel information for the defendants was not immediately available.
The government is represented by Dina McLeod of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.
The case is USA v. Bella et al., case number 1:21-cr-00247, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
--Editing by Philip Shea.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
