David Zalubowski / AP
A Florida man has been charged with bank fraud after lying on loan applications to help small businesses during the coronavirus pandemic and spending the money he received on luxury goods, including a Lamborghini, according to a criminal complaint reviewed by BuzzFeed News.
Federal prosecutors said David Tyler Hines, 29, applied for approximately $13.5 million in funds from the Paycheck Protection Program, which was established in March to provide small businesses with loans to pay employees during the pandemic. Congress approved $349 billion for the first round approved for nearly $4 million in three forgivable, low-interest PPP loans, which he then spent on personal expenses, including clothes, jewelry, Miami beach resorts, dating websites, and a 2020 Lamborghini Huracán Evo, which cost more than $318,000, prosecutors said.
Hines claimed on the applications that he was either the manager or president of four separate companies based in Miami, for which he said he employed 70 people with monthly payroll expenses of $4 million, according to the complaint. But investigators said the state of Florida had no record of any wages paid to employees of any of Hines' companies between 2015 and the first quarter of 2020.
The complaint notes that reviews on the Better Business Bureau website were the only online evidence found for Hines' businesses. Reviews for Promaster Movers, Inc. and We-Pack Moving LLC, which both appeared to be brokers for moving services. Both received F ratings from the BBB as well as complaints of "bait-and-switch practices" and "deceitful activities," the complaint said.
The complaint stated that Hines "never had the payroll obligations he claimed to have," and that upon receiving PPP payments in a bank account affiliated with his businesses, he "immediately diverted loan proceeds for unauthorized uses."
Hines' largest expenses in May and June included nearly $5,000 spent at Saks Fifth Avenue, $8,530 at a jewelry store, more than $11,000 at several Miami hotels, and a total of $30,000 going to a recipient that prosecutors labeled "Mom."
US District Court for the Southern District of Florida
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