Las Vegas Resident Indicted For COVID-19 Relief Fraud Scheme

LAS VEGAS – A Las Vegas man made his initial appearance in federal court yesterday for allegedly submitting a fraudulent Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) application seeking more than $150,000 from the Small Business Administration (SBA) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

Ribal Hajj-Hussein (28) is charged with one count of wire fraud and two counts of money laundering. U.S. Magistrate Judge Brenda Weksler scheduled a jury trial for October 17, 2022 before U.S. District Judge James C. Mahan.

According to allegations contained in the indictment, on April 14, 2020, Hajj-Hussein submitted a falsified EIDL loan application to the SBA on behalf of his company RHH Travel Consulting LLC — which was a non-operational business — in order to obtain COVID-19 relief funds that he was not entitled to receive. In his application, Hajj-Hussein falsely represented the number of employees and gross revenue. As part of the alleged scheme, Hajj-Hussein directed the SBA to deposit more than $150,000 in EIDL funds into a bank account. Later, Hajj-Hussein transferred those funds to other bank accounts and used them for personal expenses.

If convicted, the statutory maximum penalty is 40 years in prison.

U.S. Attorney Jason M. Frierson for the District of Nevada and Special Agent in Charge Karon Ransom for the U.S. Secret Service made the announcement.

This case was investigated by the U.S. Secret Service and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mina Chang is prosecuting the case.

An indictment contains merely allegations and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty in a court of law.

On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. The Task Force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with administering relief programs to prevent fraud by, among other methods, augmenting and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts. For more information on the Department’s response to the pandemic, please visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus.

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 (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at: https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.

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