MadameNoire
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A year after being charged with bank fraud, Maurice Fayne, Karlie Redd’s ex-husband, has pled guilty. According to Gossip of the City, he pled guilty to six counts of bank fraud after being accused of using funds from a Paycheck Protection Program loan to pay off personal debts and make flashy purchases.
Since he pleaded guilty, 14 other charges were dismissed and he is no longer facing 30 years in prison. In exchange for his plea, he is now facing a sentence of 151 months, or 12 and a half years.
According to the Department of Justice, Fayne applied for and was granted a PPP loan application for his business Flame Trucking. On his application, he stated that his business had 107 employees and an average monthly payroll of $1,490,200 and asked for a loan amount of $3,725,500. Instead of using the $2,045,800 he was awarded to retain workers and keep his business afloat, Fayne reportedly “used more than $1.5 million of the PPP loan proceeds to purchase $85,000 in jewelry, including a Rolex Presidential watch, a diamond bracelet, a 5.73 carat diamond ring for himself, and to pay $40,000 for child support.”
“The defendant allegedly took advantage of the emergency lending provisions of the Paycheck Protection Program that were intended to assist employees and small businesses battered by the Coronavirus,” U.S. Attorney Byung J. “BJay” Pak of the Northern District of Georgia said according to the DOJ.
When federal agents searched his home, the jewelry he bought was seized along with $80,000 in cash and a 2019 Rolls-Royce Wraith. Seizure warrants for three bank accounts that Fayne owned or controlled were also executed and $503,000 in PPP funds were also seized. Gossip of the City noted that he also had to hand over eight of his 2015 Kenworth T680 trucks.
The Paycheck Protection Protection is a part of the CARES Act and provided up to $349 billion in forgivable loans to small businesses to help retain employees as well as pay interest on mortgages, rent and utilities.
