In the world of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) fraud, it has been estimated that (to date) of the seventy-odd businesses that have scammed the government for $150,000 or better, something like one-fourth of them are based in Florida. The state runs a close second in PPP fraud to Texas. Why, is anyone’s guess. Maybe it’s the climate or the beaches, but at the moment, the Bowens family is currently in the lead for Florida’s fraud family.
Buccaneer Technologies
On May 11, 2020, a company called Buccaneer Technologies received a Paycheck Protection Program loan estimated to be anywhere from $350,000 to $1 million. What is remarkable is that the loan came through only after 72 hours of the company being registered with the State of Florida.
Then another entity, Sonata Technologies, registered for a PPP loan on May 26, 2020. The amount of the loan was between $1 million and $2 million. The loan came through a little more than a week later.
According to information obtained from the Governing.com and Miami Herald websites:
“Buccaneer Technologies, which indicated that it is an advertising agency, listed a virtual office in Miami as its business address, while Sonata Technologies listed a virtual office in Aventura as its business address. But both companies list the same home address in Apopka for their managing members.”
Neither company has a physical footprint. The CEO of Buccaneer Technologies is Emmet Bowens, while Equansha Bowens is listed as the manager for Sonata Technologies. The records indicate that Emmet Bowens owns the property in Apopka, Florida. It is not known how the two are related.
History of Fraud
Allegedly, according to Governing.com and the Miami Herald, Emmet Bowen had two lawsuits against him in 2019 for “defaulting on payments for a 2019 Ford F-150 and a used 2015 Mercedes C-Class. The suit to recover the F-150 is ongoing, while the suit to recover the Mercedes was voluntarily dismissed in early August, within months of the PPP loan approval.”
Bowens and his wife, “have also been involved in an ongoing suit brought by a mortgage company that says the couple owe more than $190,000 from the previous owner’s unpaid mortgage and fees for the Apopka house that they bought in foreclosure in 2017. The couple have disputed the legitimacy of the claim.”
Allegedly in 2011, Bowens filed for bankruptcy to clear up $290,000 in debt, but “his bankruptcy request was denied after it was challenged by the auto finance company.” This stems from fraudulent dealings with a purchased Chevrolet Avalanche that may have been transferred under nefarious means.
How are Claims Reviewed?
While the PPP program has benefitted America to the tune of $660 billion (to date), I have no doubt that because the funds were so quickly distributed that as time goes on, more cases of fraud will come to the surface.
In the example I shared above, up to $3 million was doled out to a husband, wife and relative, who had “two businesses” with no footprint, and in fact, no business. In addition, it seems clear that Bowens has had a history of fraud and bankruptcies. That no agency put the loan application together with the fraud history, or the fact that the companies were days old, is a head-scratcher.
While the PPP program has saved countless of businesses and livelihoods, there is an obvious lack of oversite. This lack created opportunities that fraudsters like the Bowens family used to their advantage, albeit a brief advantage.
They had a need to make money and apparently, they have had a history of fraudulent dealings.
The rationalization of Emmet Bowens is not much different than hundreds of other individuals who are also facing prosecution: the government had billions to give away, and no one would notice that two fraudulent companies he helped create, treated themselves to a measly $3 million.
While it is easy to blame the Bowens’ for this fraud (and they are certainly culpable), a lack of investigation and checks and balances helped to nurture the unethical behavior.
If we, as a country, apply faulty oversite to so many transactions of this nature, are they not somehow complicit in creating a potentially fraudulent atmosphere? What about a higher calling to protect the taxpayers who, over time, filled the government coffers to give out this money?
COVID-19 has revealed many things about us as a people. Ethics, or in some cases, a lack of it, has been revealed as well.
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