Converse man, 6 others accused of defrauding Small Business Administration program

SAN ANTONIO – A Converse guy and 6 alleged co-conspirators are accused of defrauding a Small Business (*6*) program.

Aaron Sams, 39 of Converse; Beverly Smith, 40, of Converse; Jesus Rodriguez, 63, of San Antonio; Uchennaya Ogba, 35, of San Antonio; Kristin Harrison, 37, of Killeen; Jonathan Adams, 36, of Lawrenceville, Georgia; and Barbara Sanders, 41, of San Antonio, have been all arrested this week and charged with one depend of conspiracy to dedicate cord fraud and one depend of conspiracy to defraud the United States, in keeping with a press unlock from the Department of Justice.

Sams is the landlord of Sams Contracting Consulting and Training LLC. The indictment alleges that he used his trade to marketplace a provider to traditionally underutilized trade zone (HUBZone) firms.

The indictment alleges that Sams and Rodriguez had shut family and friends function faux workers. Those faux workers — the codefendants on this case — have been put on a HUBZone corporate’s payroll and would pay a kickback to Sams and/or Rodriguez of about 20% of every payroll deposit they won.

The indictment alleges that Sams equipped the faux workers with private figuring out information like a motive force’s license and social safety card and arrange electronic mail addresses for them that Sams had keep watch over over.

If convicted, every defendant faces a most penalty of twenty years in jail.