Jose “Joe” Biaou, a 42-year-old citizen of Benin residing in the District, has been sentenced to 84 months in federal prison for defrauding Covid-era economic programs out of millions of dollars. The sentencing, announced by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, follows Biaou’s conviction on six counts of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft.
Biaou, the founder of FRB Capital Group LLC, was found guilty on February 17. In addition to prison time, a judge has ordered Biaou to serve 24 months of supervised release and to pay $3,417,542.77 in restitution. The fraudulent scheme involved applying for over $5 million in loans and receiving more than $3.5 million from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program for his businesses, including Millenium Global Finance, which was determined to be a fictitious entity with no employees or operations.
Evidence presented during the trial revealed that Biaou falsely claimed U.S. citizenship, submitting a counterfeit birth certificate forged from his minor daughter’s document. His applications inflated employee numbers and financial information, including average salaries and office rents. This deception extended to a PPP application for Millenium Global Finance, where Biaou claimed to have 52 employees and an average monthly payroll exceeding $520,000, despite the company’s non-existence.
The case was investigated by the United States Postal Inspection Service – Washington Division and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sungtae Kang. The U.S. Attorney’s Office emphasized that exploiting a national crisis for personal gain would result in accountability for those involved.
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