Shoe Business Owner Pays $1.4 Million for False Loan Information

A New York man agreed to pay $1.4 million to settle claims of submitting false information in Paycheck Protection Program loan applications for his companies, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.

According to the DOJ, Stefano Maroni improperly obtained separate first-draw and second-draw PPP loans for GMI USA and Belovefine, when the two entities in fact operated essentially the same footwear design and importation business, using a single office space and sharing the same employees.

The DOJ said Maroni inflated payroll figures in applications by double-counting the salaries of shared employees when only one entity paid these employees’ salaries at ...