You weren’t supposed to do that!
Brandon Fitzgerald-Holley, a 32-year-old CEO of a social justice nonprofit, initially got turned down for the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program during the COVID-19 pandemic. So he turned to a different federal program to get funds set aside to help struggling small businesses. However, Brandon just pled guilty to not using those funds for what he was supposed to, including buying himself a fancy new 2020 Dodge Charger.
According to court documents, Brandon took the money and put it in his personal accounts to use it to go on a spending spree. He spent money on clothes, furniture, televisions, and a pool table. On top of the Dodge Charger, another big ticket item was a vacation rental.
He got the money after he submitted an application for a PPP loan through a fin tech company back in June of 2020. The nonprofit, Coalition for Social Justice and Reform, has 25 employees and a payroll cost of $122,342, or so he claimed on the application. This inflated number helped him get a PPP loan for $305,854. In reality, it was found to be “largely non-operational” with no reported operations, income, employees or payroll expenses.
The 2020 Dodge Charger had to be surrendered, per the terms of the plea deal Brandon Fitzgerald-Holley accepted. This is one of several cases we’ve seen where people have duped the feds to get money to buy a Charger or Challenger, they’re not that expensive folks, but maybe worth the felony, depending on the trim package.
