Steal from the feds to buy a Lambo? Yup, South Florida is nation’s fraud capital | Opinion

A South Florida man who bilked the government out of millions of dollars and used the money to buy a Lamborghini, fancy watches and designer clothes got six years in prison Wednesday. How can anyone be surprised anymore? South Florida has earned its reputation as the No. 1 spot for fraud, especially when it comes to Paycheck Protection Program loans.

He’s not the only one. We’ve had a South Florida businessman who used PPP money for a $318,000 Lamborghini. A nurse alleged to have lied about his business to get $474,000 for a Mercedes-Benz lease and child support, and a suburban North Miami couple claiming to be farmers to qualify for $1 million in relief benefits. There was even one guy who created his own business out of helping other people defraud the system by applying for a total of $3 million in phony loans.

Of course, the program launched by the Small Business Administration under President Donald Trump in 2020 as a way to keep the U.S. economy afloat during the pandemic was fraught from the start. The rules became so loose, thanks to Congress, that it’s no wonder so many people thought they could get away with defrauding the federal government.

The sums have been huge in some cases and are all over the country. In California, two more men were just sentenced to prison for schemes involving PPP loan fraud and preparation of false tax returns for professional athletes that caused more than $44 million in losses. The Department of Justice’s Fraud Section has prosecuted more than 200 defendants in more that 130 criminal cases and seized more than $78 million along with real estate and luxury items purchased wrongly with PPP money.

The fraud could be as much as $4.6 billion, by some estimates. President Biden last year announced the appointment of a special prosecutor for pandemic fraud and signed bills extending the statute of limitations for prosecution to 10 years.

But Florida’s swagger, while bilking taxpayers, has a special place in the vast landscape of criminal behavior. The latest Lamborghini-buying fraudster showed off on social media with shots of himself driving the car and flying on a private jet. Valesky Barosy boasted an Instagram account with more than 110,000 followers and pitched himself as a mentor. Meanwhile, he was ripping off taxpayers to pay for the Miami dream: a Lamborghini Huracán EVO, Rolex watches and Gucci clothes, which will now be seized by the government.

“It’s not the Lamborghini or the million dollar home that will inspire the world,” he wrote in one post, “but the trials and tribulations you overcame.”

He’ll get the chance to demonstrate that for real now.

©2023 Miami Herald. Visit miamiherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.