Charlotte restaurant owner, son sentenced for $1.7M COVID-19 relief fraud

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - A Charlotte restaurant owner and his son were sentenced this week for defrauding the government out of $1.7 million in PPP loans after previously being found guilty of the crime.

According to U.S. Attorney Dena J. King’s office, 57-year-old Izzat Freitekh, of Waxhaw, was sentenced to four years in prison. His son, 35-year-old Tarik Freitekh, whose last known residence was in Glendale, Calif., was sentenced to more than seven years in prison.

The court also ordered each man to serve three years under court supervision upon completion of their prison terms, prosecutors said. The government previously seized and secured the forfeiture of approximately $1.3 million in Paycheck Protection Program funds illegally obtained by the Freitekhs, which has been returned to a victim lender.

Evidence presented during a six-day trial in March showed the two obtained $1.7 million in fraudulent proceeds obtained by submitting multiple fraudulent PPP loan applications.

The money was claimed to be for companies owned by Izzat Freitekh: La Shish Kabob, La Shish Kabob Catering, Green Apple Catering, and Aroma Packaging.

Court records say the loan applications misrepresented the number of employees and payroll expenses.

After obtaining the fraudulent loan proceeds, court records say the father and son engaged in unlawful monetary transactions with the proceeds of the scheme, including making $30,000 payments to family members.

“The wicked borrow and do not repay, but in the Freitekhs’ case they also lie to cover up the fraud,” U.S. Attorney King previously said. “This father and son duo exploited a national emergency for their own benefit, then tried to obstruct justice to avoid punishment. A federal jury saw through their criminal shenanigans and now the Freitekhs will be held accountable for their actions. Protecting important taxpayer-funded programs remains a priority for my office, and together with our law enforcement counterparts we will continue to identify and prosecute those who exploit these programs for their own profit.”

Izzat Freitekh was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, three counts of money laundering, and one count of making false statements.

Tarik Freitekh was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of bank fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, one count of money laundering, and one count of falsifying and concealing material facts.

The US Postal Inspection Service, IRS-CI, and TIGTA investigated the case.

Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline via the NCDF Web Complaint Form.

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