A Newburgh woman who controls several businesses in the lower Hudson Valley has admitted to illegally obtaining more than $5.7 million in Covid-19 relief loans.
Parvinder Kaur pleaded guilty on June 24 in U.S. District Court, White Plains, to conspiracy to defraud the government.
Kaur, and a conspirator who is not named in the charging papers, owned businesses based in Dutchess, Orange, and Ulster counties that operated gas stations, mini-marts, and wine and liquor stores.
She was charged with exploiting the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loans. The low-interest loans were designed to provide working capital to small businesses and to help cover payrolls, mortgages, rents, and utilities during the pandemic.
A business had to have been active on or before Feb. 15, 2020, to qualify for a loan. Applicants had to submit payroll records and tax records to prove they had employees, and they had to affirm that the business owner was not connected to any other business.
From May 2020 to April 2021, the charging papers state, Kaur and a co-conspirator applied for loans for ten businesses. They submitted inflated payroll costs and fraudulent tax documents, and they received loans totaling $5,717,376.
Kaur used nearly $2.2 million from the small business loans, according to the charging papers, to buy a petroleum wholesale business, a gas station and a property in Port Jervis.
Kaur agreed in a plea deal with the government to forfeit her interests in Ultra Energy Corp., Newburgh; a house in Montgomery; an apartment house in Port Jervis; and Runway Express gas stations in Rotterdam and Ballston Spa.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Victoria Reznik released Kaur from custody on June 24, on posting of a $500,000 personal recognizance bond. U.S. District Judge Philip M. Halpern is scheduled to sentence Kaur Nov. 5.
