Two Israelis were sentenced to spend several years in US prisons for separate fraud cases involving millions of dollars.

Daniel Dadoun, 49, was sentenced Tuesday to 41 months in prison for fraudulently obtaining $3.2 million in federal aid during the COVID-19 epidemic for his New Jersey businesses.

Meanwhile, Hava Yfrah-Austin, 58, was sentenced Monday to 51 months in prison for defrauding at least $10 million from two Miami companies where she was employed as an accountant.

Both defendants pleaded guilty to the charges against them.

Dadoun owns several businesses in New Jersey that he used to apply for participation in the Paycheck Protection Program, according to a Wednesday statement from the local district attorney’s office. The PPP was a federal program established during the COVID-19 pandemic that enabled small businesses impacted by lockdowns and economic hardships to obtain forgivable loans to pay wages and other expenses, such as utilities or rent.

According to court documents, from April 2020 through August 2022, Dadoun illegally obtained $3.2 million in PPP loans by submitting false and fraudulent loan applications.

Dadoun then sought to keep the cash by following up with “false and fraudulent PPP loan forgiveness applications that misrepresented payroll expenses and the number of employees working at his companies,” the statement said.

1) שני ישראלים הורשעו ונידונו השבוע לעונשי מאסר כבדים בארצות........

© The Times of Israel