MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Federal prosecutors said that a South Florida high school basketball coach fraudulently obtained nearly $1 million in coronavirus relief funds for his consulting company.
Terrence Deshun Williams, 40, of Tamarac, who made his first court appearance Saturday at 11 a.m., is charged by criminal complaint in the Southern District of Florida with one count of bank fraud, one count of money laundering, one count of engaging in transactions in unlawful proceeds, and one count of making false statements to a financial institution.
The federal complaint alleges that Williams, the head coach of the boys’ varsity basketball team at Stranahan High School, applied for and received $984,710 in a PPP loan from an insured financial institution on behalf of Williams Consulting Group LLC, a company Williams owned.
Federal officials contend that although Williams claimed the company had 67 employees and an average monthly payroll of $393,884.00, the company in fact paid no such payroll and did not have any recorded employees with the State of Florida.
Prosecutors say that Williams laundered the vast majority by transferring the proceeds to several accounts he controlled at a different financial institution.
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The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act was designed to provide emergency financial assistance to millions of Americans who are suffering the economic effects resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
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 Hotline at 866-720-5721.
