Southfield doctor convicted of bank fraud involving $1.7 million federal loan
A federal jury has found a Southfield, Michigan doctor guilty of bank fraud after he deceptively obtained a $1.7 million loan from the Paycheck Protection Program, according to the U.S Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Michigan.
The jury convicted Dr. Reginald Eburuche on Thursday.
The attorney's office, citing evidence presented at trial, said Eburuches looked into getting a loan from the PPP program after unsuccessfully attempting to get a line of credit for his start-up business Renovis Healthcare in 2019.
Eburuche "grossly inflated the number of employees and the average monthly payroll" in his loan application, according to federal officials. He also created and uploaded fraudulent tax documents that made it look like his headcount and salary expenditures were legitimate.
He received the $1.7 million loan in July 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the attorney's office, a large portion of the funds were frozen and seized ahead of the trial.
"When a licensed professional chooses fraud over integrity, the harm runs deeper than dollars," U.S. Attorney Jerome Gorgon Jr. said in a release about the conviction on Friday.
