FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, January 7, 2021
Accountant Who Aided Worldwide Scam Charged with Small Business Administration Loan Fraud
Miami, Fl. -- A former accountant who assisted in a scam involving valuable artwork and a Swiss bank account has been charged in connection with a scheme to fraudulently obtain a Small Business Administration (“SBA”) loan.
Daniel Gibson, 57, of Marlboro, New Jersey, was charged today by Information with one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, announced United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Ariana Fajardo Orshan, Special Agent in Charge for the FBI Miami Field Office George L. Piro, Acting Special Agent in Charge for the IRS Criminal Investigation Miami Field Office Tyler R. Hatcher, and Special Agent in Charge for the FDIC, Office of Inspector General Kyle A. Myles.
According to court documents, 1 Global Capital LLC was a commercial lending business based in Hallandale Beach, Florida, that made the equivalent of “pay day” loans to small businesses at high interest rates beginning in or around 2013. Gibson was a certified public accountant licensed in the State of New York who served as the accountant for 1 Global, 1 Global’s former chairman, and a number of businesses owend and operated by 1 Global’s former chairman.
The Information alleges that in 2011, 1 Global’s former chairman took out an approximately $3 million loan backed by the SBA, purportedly to be used as working capital for a nutraceutical business that he owned at the time. 1 Global’s former chairman and his wife were required to personally guarantee the SBA loan in full.
From about 2013 to 2018, Gibson and 1 Global’s former chairmain misrepresented to the SBA that the nutraceutical company failed as a business and that 1 Global’s former chairman had no other assets or income to make his payments on the SBA loan. According to the Information, Gibson and 1 Global’s former chairman concealed from the SBA certain assets and income that could have been used to repay the loan, including: (a) money that 1 Global’s former chairman received from 1 Global beginning in 2013, which totaled hundreds of thousands of dollars during the period in question; (b) valuable artwork that belonged to 1 Global’s former chairman; and (c) an offshore Swiss bank account in the name of and controlled by 1 Global’s former chairman, containing at one point over $1 million. Acccording to the Information, the SBA is currently owed $1,783,019.14 on this loan.
FBI Miami, IRS-CI Miami, and FDIC-OIG investigated the case. Special Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Elizabeth Young is prosecuting it, together with DOJ Criminal Division Fraud Section Trial Attorneys Jerrob Duffy, Lisa H. Miller, and L. Rush Atkinson. Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Nicole Grosnoff is handling asset forfeiture.
You may find a copy of this press release and more information about the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida at its website: www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls.
You may find related court documents and information on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 21-cr-20009.
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