Former NFL Player Sentenced in COVID Scam
By Lukas I. Alpert
Travis Harris, a star college linebacker with the Florida Gators who played for several NFL teams, admitted he couldn't accept an ordinary life - so he stole nearly $1 million in COVID aid.
In the city of Decatur, Ga., Travis Harris was a big man in town.
A local high-school football star, he'd gone on to play linebacker in college for the Florida Gators and then knocked around the NFL. After his playing days were over, he came back home to the suburb of Atlanta and opened a string of restaurants and nightclubs.
But when business went bad and the money dried up, the 43-year-old Harris couldn't get accustomed to living more simply, according to federal prosecutors. So he stole nearly $1 million in COVID-19 relief funds to keep his lifestyle going.
"The defendant appears to have let greed and his personal pride overtake his moral compass, and he turned to fraud to maintain the image of financial success that seemed so important to him," prosecutors wrote in a court filing.
When business went bad and the money dried up, Harris, 43, couldn't get accustomed to living more simply, according to federal prosecutors. So he stole nearly $1 million in COVID-19 relief funds to keep his lifestyle going.
On Thursday, Harris was sentenced in Atlanta to 16 months in prison after pleading guilty to fraud charges in February. He was also ordered to repay the $997,457.15 he admitted stealing from the federal government's Paycheck Protection Program.
"Harris falsified a loan application to obtain PPP funds for his business that he then blatantly used to fund a lavish lifestyle," said Ryan Buchanan, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia. "Harris has now been held accountable for his crime."
A message sent to Harris's attorney wasn't immediately returned.
According to court documents, Harris - who had brief stints with the Tennessee Titans and Miami Dolphins and spent time playing for the NFL's European league - was struggling with several of his businesses when the COVID-19 pandemic struck. So in June 2020, he filed a Paycheck Protection Program application for aid for one of his companies, Atlanta Luxury Cars & Trucks LLC.
On the application, he claimed he had 104 employees who received nearly $4.5 million in annual wages, and that he needed nearly $1 million to keep everyone employed. The loan was swiftly approved, but it all turned out to be a lie: Harris had no employees besides himself.
Prosecutors say that once Harris received the money, he went on an immediate shopping spree - buying Rolexes and other high-priced watches, taking luxury holidays to Las Vegas and Miami, and investing the cash in other business ventures.
Within six months, all the money was gone. Prosecutors say Harris then attempted to apply 11 more times for PPP loans and emergency disaster-injury loans, although all were rejected.
On his social-media pages - where he went by the moniker "Travis Eazy" and described himself as entrepreneur - Harris posted pictures of himself holding stacks of cash and flaunting his fancy jewelry. Underneath, he added hashtags reading "Married2DaMoney," "#TravGodMillionaire," "#RecessionProof" and "#RichForever."
Within six months, all the money was gone. Prosecutors say Harris then attempted to apply 11 more times for PPP loans and emergency disaster-injury loans, although all were rejected.
In a filing before the court asking for leniency in his sentencing, Harris's attorney admitted that his client had struggled with alcohol and drug-dependency issues and in coming to terms with living a more ordinary life as his finances suffered.
"The defendant's pride led him to feel embarrassed and somewhat of a failure due to his inability to continue to be the larger-than-life personality he had become in Atlanta and he struggled with the idea that he was no longer the man his community believed him to be" the filing read.
Original Here
|
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
