Last week, I wrote about anti-masker David Tyler Hines, a 29-year-old Florida man who received $4 million in three forgivable, low-interest Paycheck Protection Program loans—also known as PPP, a covid-19 relief package meant to keep small businesses’ employees on payroll—which he allegedly spent on a myriad of luxury goods, including a $318,497.53 blue 2020 Lamborghini Huracán EVO. (Prosecutors believe he either did not actually have any employees to retain, or paid them a small fraction of the loan he applied for.) The story was outrageous but sure to bring the country together over mutual hatred for a huge asshole. And then this happened: another 29-year-old man, Lee Price III of Houston, Texas, was charged with doing the same thing just one week after Hines. Please believe me when I ask with full sincerity—what the hell is wrong with people?
According toBusiness Insider, Price fraudulently acquired more than $1.6 million in PPP for two businesses, Price Enterprises Holdings and 713 Construction. The U.S. Department of Justice found that neither company’s staff added up to what was applied for in the loan. They also found that the 713 Construction loan, filed in May 2020, named a CEO who had died a month prior.
Price spent the relief money on a $233,337.60 Lamborghini Urus, a $14,000 Rolex, $700 at a liquor store, $2,000 at a strip club, and over $2,500 at two Houston nightclubs, The New York Times reports.He has been charged with “wire fraud, bank fraud, making false statements to financial institutions and engaging in prohibited monetary transactions.”
If one more 29-year-old dude gets caught with a Lambo he essentially stole from taxpayers, I’m gonna call it a trend.
