A Georgia man has been sentenced to a few years in federal jail after admitting he lied to acquire a COVID-19 catastrophe aid mortgage, then used a big portion of the cash to purchase a Pokémon card.
Vinath Oudomsine, 31, of Dublin, Georgia, pleaded responsible to at least one rely of wire fraud. U.S. District Decide Dudley H. Bowen additionally ordered a positive of $10,000, restitution of $85,000 and three years of supervised launch after jail.
Oudomsine will even forfeit the Pokémon “Charizard” card.
In keeping with court docket paperwork and testimony, Oudomsine utilized to the Small Enterprise Administration for an Financial Harm Catastrophe Mortgage in July 2020, falsely claiming that he ran an “leisure companies” enterprise with 10 staff. He obtained $85,000 — of which he used $57,789 to buy the Pokémon card.
“Congress appropriated funding to help small companies struggling by means of the challenges of a worldwide pandemic,” stated David H. Estes, U.S. legal professional for the Southern District of Georgia, in a press launch issued Monday by the Division of Justice. “Like moths to the flame, fraudsters like Oudomsine took benefit of those packages to line their very own pockets.”
The cardboard depicting the dragon-like fan favourite is among the most sought-after within the Pokémon assortment.
At a Dallas public sale final week, a 1999 Charizard from the sport’s first English print run offered for $336,000, far surpassing its estimate of $200,000.