EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14\/CBS4) \u2014 An El Paso woman admits she defrauded over $2 million from COVID relief programs set to help small businesses through the pandemic. <\/p>\n
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, on Wednesday, 47-year-old Araceli Benitez pleaded guilty in federal court to two charges related to Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) fraud, and to one count of wire fraud and one count of false, fictitious, or fraudulent claims to the IRS.<\/p>\n
Benitez has not been sentenced, but the DOJ said she faces up to 30 years in prison for the wire fraud and up to five years for the false claim. A federal district court judge will ultimately determine her sentence. <\/p>\n
RELATED: El Paso woman accused of defrauding $2 million in COVID relief program<\/a><\/p>\n According to court documents, this is what Benitez did:<\/p>\n She owned and operated Garaas Insurance Tax Services (GITS) and Ashley Home Care Services (AHH) out of a storefront in El Paso. <\/p>\n Through those businesses, Benitez helped various other businesses obtain PPP loans from the federal government, charging clients a percentage of the loan they would receive.<\/p>\n However, in at least one instance, Benitez received income tax information from a client for the purpose of a PPP loan application, then prepared and filed a false Form 1040 that reflected different figures from the client’s true Form 1040. The Form 1040 filed by Benitez for the PPP loan application also did not contain her client’s signature. Additionally, the client\u2019s signature on the loan application was forged and the application had not been reviewed by the client before Benitez submitted it. For her work in preparing the PPP loan application, Benitez charged the client $6,000 and deposited the funds into the GITS bank account.<\/p>\n Additionally, Benitez provided false information to the IRS via a Form 941, Employer\u2019s Quarterly Federal Tax Return. <\/p>\n On July 12, 2022, Benitez filed the form, claiming to have paid several employees higher wages than she had actually paid out. As a result of the false information, Benitez received a tax refund of $52,267.92.<\/p>\n