A Culver City restaurateur who owns a hospitality company with restaurants and hotels in California, Tennessee and Kentucky was sentenced Tuesday to 41 months in federal prison for fraudulently obtaining more than $4 million in COVID-19 economic relief loans.
Philip Frederick Camino, 46, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Fred W. Slaughter, who also ordered him to pay $4,365,667 in restitution. Camino was taken into federal custody at the conclusion of the hearing.
Camino pleaded guilty in August 2024 to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
In spring 2020, Congress created two federal programs to provide financial assistance to Americans and businesses suffering economic harm from the COVID-19 pandemic: the Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loans.
From April 2020 to April 2021, Camino, who owned several companies based in Hollywood, Westwood, Studio City and Beverly Hills as well as in Arizona, submitted fraudulent applications to the U.S. Small Business Administration and banks for PPP and EIDL loans.
In the applications, Camino inflated employee counts, submitted fictitious federal tax forms never filed with the IRS and falsely certified that loan proceeds would be used for permissible business purposes. In total, he submitted more than 20 fraudulent loan applications, obtaining more than $4 million.
Homeland Security Investigations, the FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation investigated the case.
The case was prosecuted by Jennifer L. Waier, chief assistant U.S. attorney and chief of the Criminal Division.
— Edited by SMDP Staff