The U.S. Department of Justice announced fraud charges against a Texas man accused of fraudulently obtaining $1.1 million in federal loans earmarked for small businesses affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Joshua Thomas Argires, 29, of Houston was charged with making false statements to a financial institution, engaging in unlawful monetary transactions, wire fraud, and bank fraud. It is unclear if he has acquired the services of an attorney.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas has announced the arrest of Michael George McQuarn of Austin for allegedly defrauding the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Paycheck Protection Program of more than $2 million.
McQuarn was charged with wire fraud and making false statements to the SBA. The press did not name an attorney for him.
Authorities in Texas announced a third worker has died from injuries caused by an explosion at a Chesapeake Energy Corporation oil well site last Wednesday.
According to a preliminary report from the Railroad Commission of Texas, the explosion occurred at approximately 3:30 p.m. on January 29 at a pair of oil wells off County Road 127 near Deanville in Burleson County. Workers were upgrading a wellhead when an unexpected amount of natural gas entered the 8,500-foot-deep well and ignited.
In January 2016, police officers searched Ovide Ned’s car during a traffic stop in Houston, Texas. After they found a bottle of opioid painkillers, police charged Ned, then aged 40, with drug possession. Ned had $955 on his person at the time. Officers seized this money as well.
Once Ned was able to prove he had a valid prescription for the medication, the criminal charges against him were dropped. The money, however, was never returned.
Angela Beavers, the chief civil asset forfeiture prosecutor at the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, said that despite the prescription, Ned was “obviously selling the pills.” She explained that drug dealers would often obtain prescriptions for the meds they were selling from pain clinics.
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In 2017, law enforcement across Texas seized more than $50 million in property, cash, and other assets from private citizens. They were able to do so by claiming these assets were linked to crime. While some of these seizures were taken using criminal forfeiture—that is, as part of cases where an individual was found guilty of a crime—others were taken using civil forfeiture. No criminal charges are required for civil asset forfeiture.
The Texas Attorney General’s Office makes no distinction in its records between civil and criminal forfeiture, so it is unknown how much property was taken from individuals not charged with a crime. Attempts by state legislators to force law enforcement to improve their reporting have repeatedly failed.
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Criminal Defense and Civil Forfeiture Blog