Bravo’s Mauricio Umansky has been sued for allegedly receiving $3.5M in fraudulent pandemic relief loans.
Real estate mogul Mauricio Umansky is being sued for allegedly obtaining millions of dollars in fraudulent pandemic relief loans during COVID-19.
According to InTouch, Realtor LLC claims that Mauricio Umansky and his business partner, William “Billy” Rose, applied for and received two Payroll Protection Program (PPP) and CARES Act loans, totaling $3,521,153 for their luxury real estate firm – The Agency.
Said programs were created during the COVID-19 pandemic to prevent companies from having to terminate employees.
In its 2023 filing, Realtor LLC alleged that The Agency was one of many “large, profitable” companies that obtained pandemic relief loans by “misrepresenting their financial situations, claiming their businesses were eligible when they were not, or … misrepresenting how the funds would be used.”
The lawsuit claimed Mauricio Umansky and Rose “falsely certified that ‘current economic uncertainty makes this loan request necessary to support the ongoing operations’” of their luxury real estate firm.
“In addition, the amounts they applied for and received exceeded the loan limit of 2.5 monthly salary with a cap of $100,000 annual salary per employee,” the complaint claimed, adding that the businessmen “later applied for and received full loan forgiveness, knowing they were ineligible for the loans in the first place.”
The filing insisted that The Agency’s profits “would have been minimally impacted, if at all, because their revenue was based on a percentage of real estate transactions, typically between millionaires and billionaires, not consumers who were unable to buy goods or dine out because of the COVID-19 restrictions.”
In fact, the lawsuit alleges that The Agency‘s “business grew massively” during the pandemic. In 2019, the real estate agency had $6 billion in sales. That number rose to $6.5 billion in 2020 and “ballooned to $11.2 billion in 2021.”
Realtor LLC argued that the fraudulent loans “only bolstered defendants’ profits.”
A rep for The Agency denies the allegations made in the lawsuit.
“The claims in this case do not reflect the reality of our operations and financial situation at the time we filed for our PPP loans, and we intend to vigorously defend against these meritless claims,” said rep told Page Six. “The Agency has always operated with the highest level of integrity in all aspects of our business.”
The Agency rep insisted the company “faced significant challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, including layoffs and cutbacks.”
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