NEW ORLEANS – U.S. Attorney Duane A. Evans announced that STACEY V. SANTEMORE, SR., age 46, formerly of New Orleans but now a resident of Houston, Texas, pleaded guilty on April 27, 2022 before U.S. District Court Judge Jay C. Zainey to a two-count bill of information charging him with making false statements and theft of government funds related to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act).
The CARES Act is a federal law enacted on March 29, 2020, to provide emergency financial assistance in connection with economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. One source of relief provided by the CARES Act was the authorization of up to $349 billion in forgivable loans to small businesses for job retention and certain other expenses, through the PPP. The PPP allows qualifying small businesses and other organizations to receive loans with a maturity of two years and an interest rate of 1%. PPP loan proceeds must be used by businesses on payroll costs, interest on mortgages, rent, and utilities. The PPP allows the interest and principal on the PPP loan to be forgiven if the business spends the loan proceeds on these expense items within a designated period of time after receiving the proceeds and uses at least a certain percentage of the PPP loan proceeds on payroll expenses. In April 2020, Congress authorized over $300 billion in additional PPP funding.
In addition, the CARES Act created a temporary federal unemployment insurance program called Pandemic...
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has warned Nigerians against sharing a viral social media list claiming that some products in the Nigerian market are fake...