Love & Hip Hop star Maurice “Mo” Fayne was hit with a hefty prison sentence after being caught up in a federal COVID relief loan scam, Fox 5 Atlanta reports.
According to police reports, Fayne was sentenced to 210 months (17.5 years) in federal prisons for misappropriating a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan. He was originally convicted of wire fraud related to a Ponzi scheme, bank fraud, and making false statements to a financial institution in May of this year. Fayne is best known as Karlie Redd’s love interest on the Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta reality show.
Fayne, who’s listed as the sole owner of Flame Trucking in Georgia, used his business to apply for a $3.7 million PPP loan from the government. He officially received a little less than $2 million, which the 38-year-old used on personal items and to cover up a multi-state “Ponzi scheme” that he’s been running since 2013, according to the prosecutors.
“Fayne planned to use the PPP program as a cover for his long-running Ponzi scheme,” Acting U.S. Attorney Kurt R. Erskine said, per Atlanta’s Fox affiliate. “The funds the program supplies serve as a lifeline to many businesses desperately trying to stay afloat during the pandemic, and unfortunately his fraud helped deplete those precious dollars.”
Prosecutors say that more than $1.5 million of the PPP loan proceeds went towards the purchase of $85,000 in jewelry, including a Rolex Presidential watch, a diamond bracelet, and a…