Foreign National Sentenced to 7 Years in Defrauding American Taxpayers Out of Millions in Covid-Era Emergency Aid

WASHINGTON - Jose "Joe" Biaou, 42, a citizen of Benin and a resident of the District, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court to 84 months in federal prison in connection with a scheme to defraud Covid-era economic programs out of millions of dollars in taxpayer-provided emergency funds, announced U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro.

"Mr. Biaou built his scheme on lies - lies about his business, his finances, even his identity. This sentence reflects the seriousness of his fraud and the consequences that follow," said U.S. Attorney Pirro. "Stealing emergency relief funds is stealing from the American people and those who exploit a national crisis for personal gain will be held fully accountable."

Biaou, the founder of FRB Capital Group LLC, was found guilty on February 17 by a federal jury of six counts of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. In addition to the 84-month prison sentence, Judge Christopher R. Cooper ordered Biaou to serve 24 months of supervised release, and to pay $3,417,542.77 in restitution.

According to the government's evidence at trial, Biaou applied for more than $5 million in loans and received more than $3.5 million in proceeds from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program on behalf of FRB Capital Group LLC and, Millenium Global Finance, the latter of which was an entity with no employees or operations.

In support of his EIDL applications, Biaou falsely claimed that he was a U.S. citizen and provided a counterfeit birth certificate, which he forged using a copy of his minor daughter's birth certificate.

FRB Capital Group LLC is a brokerage firm for the commercial real estate industry. On his applications for federal emergency funding, Biaou consistently inflated the number of FRB employees, as well as their average monthly salaries, office rents, and other financial information. Biaou then applied for forgiveness of one of the PPP loans and submitted false information about how his business spent the funds during the pandemic.

Biaou also applied for and received $1.25 million in PPP funds for Millenium Global Finance after representing that the firm had 52 employees and an average monthly payroll of more than $520,000 throughout 2019. Millenium Global Finance was not a real company.

This case was investigated by the United States Postal Inspection Service - Washington Division. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sungtae Kang.

On April 7, the Department of Justice announced the creation of the National Fraud Enforcement Division. The Fraud Division is laser-focused on investigating and prosecuting those who commit fraud against the American people. The Department's work to combat fraud supports President Trump's Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, a whole-of-government effort chaired by Vice President J.D. Vance to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse within Federal benefit
programs.

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