A Miami real estate agent was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison for fraudulently obtaining Covid-19 relief loans and grants under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the Economic Injury Disaster Relief Program.
Daniela Rendon was accused of submitting fraudulent applications seeking relief funds from the U.S. Small Business Administration and the PPP – according to the charges brought against her, she is alleged to have falsified her revenue and payroll and submitted fraudulent IRS tax forms, which resulted in her receiving approximately $381,000.
To disburse the funds, she is alleged to have enrolled with a payroll processor to issue fraudulent payroll checks to herself, family members, and friends. The funds were alleged to have used to lease a 2021 Bentley Bentayga, rent a luxury Biscayne Bay apartment, pay for cosmetic dermatology procedures, and refinish her designer shoes.
Rendon was indicted on seven counts of wire fraud, two counts of money laundering, and one count of aggravated identity theft – had she been convicted on all the charges, she faced up to 20 years in prison. However, in April she pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and prosecutors agreed to drop the other six charges.
Rendon will be under supervised release with special conditions for three years after her prison sentence. She was also ordered to pay nearly $200,000 in restitution.
Photo of Daniela Reardon courtesy of her Instagram page
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The federal government (that’s us) was complicit and should be held accountable. Just another reason why big government dosen’t work. If there had not been a federal program in the first place, 1) she would never have been enticed and would have never done what she did, 2) there would never have been an investigation and trial and so much burden of time, energy, and money spent. Our tax dollars at work. Makes me sick to think about it. $200,000 was not nearly enough, though – and when do we get it back? Probably never. This case is just the tip of the ice berg. Our nation is going down fast.
So Donald Wilkins, you’re blaming the giver for the theft? That’s senseless. There are too many greedy cheats out there, and I hope each of them is prosecuted. However, the PPP saved untold lives and jobs.
Donald said “complicit”, meaning “along with”, not fully blaming the government.
As far as “savng lives and untold jobs”, that’s laughable, the COVID shutdowns put millions of jobs and businesses out of work.
PPP was like throwing crumbs to dogs under the table.
I agree. The government almost made a joke out of throwing money at people. Though it doesn’t excuse her dishonesty, there were many people who took advantage of the money throwing frenzy our government engaged in, all to cover their own responsibility for the pandemic. She’s responsible for her actions but I do believe the government owns part of it. Our government has become way too free with spending our money.
You are correct. The “giver” did not do due diligence in approving these phony PPP. There will be 100’s of 1000’s of these and it is OUR taxpayer money they gave out to be stolen.
Seriously, that makes about as much sense as saying, if she had never been born she would have not done it.Some people needed that money to feed their family. She took advantage shame on her.
This is why consumers don’t trust realtors…such an unethical individual.
She better have had her real estate license permanently revoked.
There are over 200 million Real Estate agent in the US who did not do this.
Haha no that is not accurate. There are roughly 1.5M realtors in the US. I do agree with the rest of your statement. I didn’t take one cent of PPP money.
One bad banker , secretary , nurse , doctor , farmer , lawyer , hairdresser Realtor , does not make all of these other in there profession BAD! I have worked many years in Real Estate Industry and I had very honest and trustworthy!
Nobody should commit crimes. Period. This person defrauded tax payers, and that hurts everyone. She isn’t the only one who did this during Covid. It was rampant & the government didn’t do their job vetting these kinds of handouts. As a real estate Broker, it’s embarrassing when another agent makes all of us look bad.
Amen!
So, some are blaming the Government for trying to help PPP that needed help during a time we all suffered in some form or another. So you’re saying just because the government offered the money, there should be no punishment for the greedy people, that filed for money under false pretenses. There is nothing wrong with this country, there is a lot wrong with the people in this world. People thinking they are entitled, can commit crimes blame the government and the law not apply to them. All the Karen’s of the world need to take a seat and be quiet
Unfortunately people are becoming more fraudulent beings. They’ve stolen over $200 Billion from US taxpayers. Now we better see the US government spend more money to get it back.
While I’m not offering an excuse for her criminal behavior, I am STILL getting weekly robo-calls from unknown entities telling me I’m eligible for government funds through the PPP policy. These fraudsters need to be shut down.
I guess besides what’s above, does it matter what profession this person is or why that was even mentioned? Although she did this on her own, it gives a another black eye to Realtors at a time when our reputation has been questioned. We need to get out of this cycle. Sexual harassment, DoJ investigations, fair housing issues, client representation class action suit, it doesn’t end until we as Realtors and NAR end it.
As a profession we have to clamp down on our members. Whether is more stringent Code of Ethics requirements to making the Pathways to Professionalism standard to better policing to stricter enforcement. We have a lot to clean up and it’s got to start sooner than later. I am a proud Realtor and RE educator and it’s got to start from pre-licensing (as I do now) to better PR. And so much more.
That is so sad seen how the IRS and the whole system is so weak and unfair, in 2021 I paid my taxes doble by mistake almos $15,000 thousand dollars which voided me a terrible microeconomic hardship and until now I haven’t received that money back. But that “lady took our money to spend it in luxuries and she got away without the punishment he deserves.