An NYPD detective from Valley Stream who allegedly helped more than 65 people obtain fraudulent COVID-19 relief loans was among four people arrested and charged Monday in connection with the plot, federal prosecutors said.
John Bolden, 46, of Valley Stream, is accused of conspiring with his colleague, now-retired NYPD Det. Anthony Carreira, 42, of Staten Island, as well as Bolden’s mother, Jacqueline Johnson, 78, of Valley Stream, and his cousin, Christian McKenzie, 46, of Wheatley Heights, to defraud the federal government’s Small Business Administration, which administers the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which are loans designed to provide forgiven loans to small businesses to preserve jobs after in-person commerce virtually ground to a halt during the pandemic.
Bolden, Johnson and McKenzie were released on $25,000 bail at their initial appearance in Brooklyn federal court before U.S. Magistrate Judge Lois Bloom; Carreira has made arrangements to turn himself in at a later date.
Bolden’s attorney declined to comment. Attorneys for the other defendants did not respond to requests for comment.
“As alleged, the defendants, including law enforcement officials charged with upholding the law, defrauded the U.S. government of relief funds intended for businesses struggling to survive,” said Breon Peace, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, in a statement. “These arrests are a stark reminder of this office’s determination to prosecute anyone who abused the public trust and exploited the COVID crisis by stealing relief programs.”
Bolden and Carreira, who owned shares in a franchise branch of a tax preparation firm, were involved in the alleged scheme to fraudulently obtain PPP funds between May 2020 and October 2022, prosecutors said.
Bolden obtained PPP funds for himself, his co-defendants and more than 65 others, including family and friends, “by assisting in the submission of online loan applications that contained factually false and fraudulent information,” prosecutors said. Bolden created fictitious IRS documents that were attached to the loan applications and contained false information about the applicants’ places of employment, gross income and net income.
The alleged plot began, according to prosecutors, when Bolden received an email on May 9, 2020, containing a 30-minute recording from a person identified as “Co-Conspirator 1” describing how to create fraudulent PPP loan applications.
“During the recording, Co-Conspirator 1 recommended that meeting participants submit PPP loan applications of less than $20,000 to avoid having to provide proof that the requested money was properly used to seek debt forgiveness,” prosecutors wrote in a complaint and an affidavit in support of an arrest warrant. “As Co-Conspirator 1 explained, ‘We all want the bread, but we also want the debt forgiveness. That’s the big win.'”
Two days later, prosecutors said, Bolden received a “fictitious” IRS Form 1040 that listed his occupation as a police officer and stated that he earned $5,866 in 2019, “even though NYPD payroll records and Bolden’s bank statements show that he earned over $100,000 from the NYPD that year,” prosecutors said.
The form also listed gross income of $129,583 and net income of $99,764 from his Security Services business, whose address was listed as one of Bolden’s tax preparation offices, prosecutors said.
Bolden eventually submitted two loan applications totaling $41,567, both of which were approved, prosecutors said.
Bolden was suspended without pay, according to an NYPD spokesman. Carreira is retired, the spokesman said.
Nicole Fuller is Newsday’s chief crime reporter. She started working at Newsday in 2012 and previously covered local government.
