Irvine man heads to prison after he spent $5M in COVID-19 funds on sport cars

LOS ANGELES – An Orange County man was sentenced today to 54 months in federal prison for fraudulently obtaining $5 million in COVID-relief loans for his sham businesses, then used the money on himself, including purchasing Ferrari, Bentley and Lamborghini cars.

Mustafa Qadiri, 42, of Irvine, was sentenced by United States District Judge Josephine L. Staton, who also fined him $20,000 and ordered him to pay $2,861,050 in restitution.

Qadiri pleaded guilty in July 2021 to one count of bank fraud, one count of aggravated identity theft, and one count of money laundering.

According to court documents, Qadiri claimed to have operated four Newport Beach-based companies, none of which were in operation: All American Lending Inc., All American Capital Holdings Inc., RadMediaLab Inc., and Ad Blot Inc.

In May and June of 2020, Qadiri submitted false and fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan applications to three banks on behalf of those companies. The false information Qadiri submitted included the number of employees to whom the companies paid wages, altered bank account records with inflated balances, and fictitious quarterly federal tax return forms. Qadiri also used someone else’s name, Social Security number and signature to fraudulently apply for one of the loans.

PPP loans were intended by Congress to provided financial support to businesses suffering under the weight of the COVID-19 pandemic’s economic fallout.

Relying on this false information, the banks funded the PPP loan applications and transferred approximately $5 million to accounts Qadiri controlled. Qadiri used the fraudulently obtained PPP loan proceeds for his own personal benefit, including for expenses prohibited under the requirements of the PPP program, such as the purchase of luxury vehicles, lavish vacations, and the payment of his personal expenses.

Federal agents seized the Ferrari, Bentley and Lamborghini cars that Qadiri purchased with the fraudulently obtained PPP loans, along with $2 million in ill-gotten gains from his bank account.

Homeland Security Investigations, the Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General, the FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation investigated this matter as part of the El Camino Real Financial Crimes Task Force.

Assistant United States Attorney Jennifer L. Waier of the Santa Ana Branch Office prosecuted this case.

Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud Hotline at (866) 720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at: https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.