Bed-Stuy Man Scammed $2M From Coronavirus Relief Fund, Feds Say

BED-STUY, BROOKLYN — A Bed-Stuy man who scammed nearly $2 million from the federal government's coronavirus business relief fund pocketed the money to buy himself luxury cars, according to newly-released court documents.

Leon Miles, 51, was arrested Monday morning after investigators discovered he defrauded the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which Congress created as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act earlier this year, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Miles, who is charged with wire fraud, is accused of sending in fake tax documents to get more than $1.9 million from the program and using the money to buy himself a $25,000 Bentley and $100,000 Cadillac.

“We continue to see people taking advantage of the Paycheck Protection Program, which was created to provide emergency financial assistance to businesses who need it during the pandemic,” FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William F. Sweeney said in a release. “ This type of criminal behavior is a slap in the face to all of those who play by the rules, especially while so many in our communities are suffering from the financial fallout of the pandemic."

Miles sent in an application for a $1.9 million PPP loan in May, claiming that he ran a company with 50 employees out of his home on Macon Street, prosecutors said. His application was approved May 25.

The CARES Act provides emergency financial assistance to those suffering because of the coronavirus pandemic, including forgivable loans to small businesses for job retention and other expenses.

But investigators later discovered that all the tax forms Miles had sent in with the PPP application — claiming he spent more than $761,000 a month on payroll — were fake, and had never been filed with the Internal Revenue Service, according to the court records.

The company had actually filed no tax returns and Miles reported no taxable income during the time period on the fake documents, prosecutors said.

Instead, within days of getting the PPP loan money put in his personal savings account, Miles took out hundreds of thousands of dollars. He used the money to buy the Bentley Continental and Cadillac Escalade, prosecutors said.

Miles made his first appearance in court on Monday afternoon.