A Utah restauranteur and part-owner of the Sicilia Restaurant Management company has been sentenced to a year in prison for defrauding the U.S. government’s COVID-19 Relief program of over $1.8 million.
Giuseppe Mirenda, a 29-year-old resident of Salt Lake City, has been sentenced for his involvement in the conversion of government property. After pleading guilty in February, Mirenda has been found guilty on two counts of this offense. As part of his punishment, he will serve a prison term, followed by a three-year period of supervised release. Additionally, he has been ordered to pay a fine of $250,000.
Between March 2020 and June 2020, Mirenda, a co-owner of five Utah restaurants under Sicilia Restaurant Management, namely Sicilia Mia 1, Sicilia Mia 2, Sicilia Mia LLC, Antica Sicilia LLC, and Bella Sicilia LLC, allegedly engaged in fraudulent activities. He applied for and signed agreements for six Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL loans).
EIDL loans, which were intended to support small businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, have a specific purpose. According to reports, Mirenda acknowledged that the loan should be used for restaurant capital. However, instead of using the funds as agreed, he utilized them for his personal gain.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, he misrepresented the citizenship status of his co-owners in order to obtain the loans.
According to a press release from the Department of Justice (DOJ), Mirenda unlawfully acquired a total of $1,889,400 in EIDL loan funds. Shockingly, within a span of less than a year, he managed to utilize over $1.1 million of these fraudulently obtained funds to purchase properties in West Jordan, Utah and Las Vegas, Nevada. Additionally, Mirenda misappropriated at least $81,781 of the EIDL loan funds to buy high-end vehicles, including a BMW M3 and a Jaguar F-PACE, as well as $39,000 worth of cryptocurrency.
According to the release, Mirena has allegedly returned $680,000 of the EIDL funds, and the U.S. government has recovered almost $1.3 million through the seizure of the profits he gained from selling his two homes in Utah and Nevada.
Unfortunately, there is no additional information currently available.