A Houston woman has been charged with fraudulently procuring $1,937,500 in Paycheck Protection Program loans from a lender in Massachusetts, and attempting to use a fake hair extensions company to acquire loans from a bank in Lubbock.
The Justice Department announced that 22-year-old Lola Kasali has been arrested for making false statements to a financial institution, wire fraud, bank fraud, and engaging in unlawful monetary transactions.
Kasali allegedly applied to a bank in Boston, Massachusetts for $1,937,500, falsely claiming to employ eight employees at a company called “Lola’s Level” that had $775,000 in monthly payroll expenses.
The lender granted the application in July, but U.S. District Judge Andrew Edison managed to recover the stolen funds via a court-ordered seizure of Kasali’s bank accounts, according to the criminal complaint affidavit.
Federal authorities also say Kasali tried to rip off $1,875,944 in loans from a bank in Lubbock using a bogus company called Charm Hair Extensions, but the Lubbock institution denied Kasali’s application.
Kasali claimed that Charm Hair Extensions had 99 employees and $750,387 in monthly payroll expenses, court documents say.
“Trial attorneys Timothy A. Duree and Matthew Grisier of the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section are prosecuting the case with the assistance of Assistant U.S. Attorney James McAlister for the Southern District of Texas,” the Justice Department said in a press release.
The criminal complaint affidavit in United States v. Lola Kasali is below.
Disclosure: Unlike almost every other media outlet, The Texan is not beholden to any special interests, does not apply for any type of state or federal funding, and relies exclusively on its readers for financial support. If you’d like to become one of the people we’re financially accountable to, click here to subscribe.
Hayden Sparks
Hayden Sparks is a reporter for The Texan in Dallas. During the academic year, he coaches high school competitive speech and debate and has also been involved in community theater and politics. A native Texan, Hayden served as a delegate at the Republican Party of Texas Convention in 2016. He is on track to receive a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Liberty University. In his free time, Hayden is known to take walks around the neighborhood while listening to random music on Spotify.
