A man has been charged with wire fraud after he allegedly spent $57,000 of his business' Covid relief loan on a single 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Pokemon card.
Vinath Oudomsine, from Dublin, Georgia, is facing up to 20 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine if found guilty of wire fraud. On August 4, 2020, Oudomsine was awarded an $85,000 Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) for a business he claimed had 10 employees and began operating in 2018. EIDLs were introduced in March 2020 as part of the United States' Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, a law meant to "provide emergency financial assistance to the millions who are suffering the economic effects caused by the Covid-19 pandemic".
The funds were meant to be used by businesses to help with day-to-day running costs like payroll, sick pay, rent, and production costs. Instead, prosecutors claim that Oudomsine spent $57,789 to buy a single Pokemon card "by means of false and fraudulent misrepresentation" in January 2021. Though neither the nor the specifies which card it is, the amount spent prices it lower than the game's 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:most valuableꦅ cards like base set Charizard or a test print Blastoise, which can cost in the hundreds of 🍸thousands.
In the court filing, prosecutors say that Oudomsine lied about his company's number of employees and annual gross revenue to get a bigger payout from the loan. Loans are adjusted and granted based on a company's size, income, and the cost of goods sold in the twelve months before the loan was filed.
What is amusing about this case is that EIDLs can't be forgiven, meaning Oudomsine would have still had to pay the money back even if he had gotten away with it. It is possible that he was hoping to turn a profit on the card, having seen the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:large number of massive deals made in the last 12 months like the PSA 10-graded 1999 Japanese Promo Tropical Wind that sold for $65,000 in October 2020. But then that raises the question of whether high-end Pokemon cards would count as a 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:valid business expense, which seems unlikely in Oudomsine's case.
