Santa Barbara dentist Ranjan Rajbanshi, 46, pleaded responsible on Monday, August 21, to stealing half one million {dollars} in COVID-19 reduction cash, in response to an announcement from U.S. Legal professional Phillip A. Talbert.
Rajbanshi ran Star Dental Group, a dental apply in Santa Barbara and Bakersfield, in response to court docket data. From April 2020 to February 2022, the Small Enterprise Administration (SBA) and the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Providers (HHS) gave him $850,000 in COVID-19 reduction cash, which he attested would solely be used for specified enterprise functions comparable to facility prices, payroll, and protecting tools for him and his employees.
Nonetheless, Rajbanshi then used $500,000 of that cash for what the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace described as “improper private expenditures comparable to investments.” As a part of his plea settlement, he should pay that cash again to the federal government earlier than his sentencing, which is scheduled for December 4 in U.S. District Courtroom in Fresno.
Along with the reduction cash that he’s agreed to pay again, Rajbanshi faces a most statutory penalty of 10 years in jail and superb of $250,000. In response to the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace, “The precise sentence, nonetheless, will likely be decided on the discretion of the court docket after consideration of any relevant statutory components and the Federal Sentencing Tips, which take into consideration quite a lot of variables.”
Anybody with details about allegations of tried fraud, involving COVID-19, can report it by calling the Division of Justice’s Nationwide Middle for Catastrophe Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at (866) 720-5721 or through the NCDF Net Grievance Kind.
