Former Leader of Black Muslim Temple Charged in $22 Million PPP Fraud Scheme
The former leader of a Black Muslim temple convicted five years ago of defrauding several local governments in California has been charged with trying to steal $22 million from the Paycheck Protection Program.
Attila Colar, 48, of Richmond, who goes by several aliases including Dahood Sharieff Bey, was charged with bank fraud in an alleged scheme whereby he falsified documents to take advantage of the federal program intended to keep small businesses afloat during the economic shutdown, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Francisco said Friday.
Colar faces up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine if convicted.
Prosecutors sought to keep him detained in jail while the case is prosecuted by telling the court that Colar tried to destroy records related to PPP applications by flushing them down a toilet when investigators executed a search warrant at his home in Hercules.
According to a criminal complaint, he submitted nine loan applications, including three for All Hands on Deck, a nonprofit he founded to offer services to people released from jail, and received $1.1 million from one of those applications.
Prosecutors said he falsified payroll tax documents to make it look like he was paying employees in excess of $22 million, when there were no W2 forms to back up the claim.
None of the loan money was spent, defense attorney Patrick Hanly wrote in a motion arguing for Colar’s release.
“This is a no loss paper crime. A fraud case involving allegations of false statements on a loan application,” Hanly wrote. “The loan proceeds sat in the defendant’s account for over 2 weeks before being seized by the FBI.”
Colar was convicted in 2015 and sentenced to five years in state prison for submitting bogus documents to win security contracts with Alameda County, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles.
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