Southern District of Florida | Coral Springs Resident Sentenced to 51 Months for Embezzlement Scheme Against Former Employer and Submission of Fraudulent CARES Act Loan Application
MIAMI – Jennifer Pamela Izzo, 35, of Coral Springs, Florida, has been sentenced to 51 months in prison for embezzling $94,500 from her former employer, a trucking maintenance company based in Fort Lauderdale. She also exploited her position at the company when filing a COVID-19 assistance loan on its behalf, attempting to fraudulently divert government funds for her own personal benefit. Although the loan was never granted, she stood to gain as much as $150,000 in additional illicit funds.
In August 2019, the auto-maintenance company hired Izzo as its financial bookkeeper, entrusting her with direct access to the vendor accounts and the company credit cards, including the cards issued in the names of individual employees. However, from October 2019 through April 2020, Izzo orchestrated a sophisticated scheme to defraud her employer by creating fictitious vendor accounts that she secretly controlled.] Throughout her employment, she carried out dozens of unauthorized transactions using the company’s credit cards, re-routing the stolen funds from the fake vendors, and ultimately into her own bank account.
During the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Izzo also abused her position of trust when she was asked to file an Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) on behalf of the company, seeking federal funds to help cover its payroll expenses. But rather than listing the company’s bank account in the unsuccessful application, Izzo listed her own personal bank account as the intended beneficiary.
Izzo pled guilty on December 20, 2022, to two counts of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. While awaiting sentencing, Izzo’s bond was revoked and she was remanded into federal custody when the district court found probable cause to believe that Izzo had stolen money from yet another company that had just recently hired her. In addition to her sentence, Izzo has been ordered to pay back in the form of restitution all of the $94,500 stolen from her previous employer.
U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe for the Southern District of Florida, Special Agent in Charge Rafael Barros of the U.S. Secret Service (USSS), Miami Field Office, and Chief of Police Patrick Lynn of the Fort Lauderdale Police Department (FLPD) announced the sentence imposed by U.S. District Robin L. Rosenberg.
USSS Miami and FLPD investigated the case, with assistance from the Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General (SBA-OIG). Assistant U.S. Attorney Eduardo Gardea Jr. prosecuted the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Emily Stone and Sara Klco are handling asset forfeiture.
In March 2020, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (“CARES”) Act was enacted. It was designed to provide emergency financial assistance to the millions of Americans suffering the economic effects caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Among other sources of relief, the CARES Act authorized and provided funding to the Small Business Administration (“SBA”) to provide Economic Injury Disaster Loans (“EIDLs”) to eligible small businesses, including sole proprietorships and independent contractors, experiencing substantial financial disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic to allow them to meet financial obligations and operating expenses that could otherwise have been met had the disaster not occurred. EIDL applications were submitted directly to the SBA via the SBA’s on-line application website, and the applications were processed and the loans funded for qualifying applicants directly by the SBA.
On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. The Task Force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with administering relief programs to prevent fraud by, among other methods, augmenting and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts. For more information on the Department’s response to the pandemic, please visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus.
On September 15, 2022, the Attorney General selected the Southern District of Florida’s U.S. Attorney’s Office to head one of three national COVID-19 Fraud Strike Force Teams. The Department of Justice established the Strike Force to enhance existing efforts to combat and prevent COVID-19 related financial fraud. For more information on the department’s response to the pandemic, please click here.
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 (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at: https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov under case number 22-cr-60155.
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