Man who got Covid-19 relief loans and spent $700,000 on Lamborghini

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Man who got Covid-19 relief loans and spent $700,000 on Lamborghini

A Texas man who fraudulently got $1.6 million in coronavirus relief loans and then spent a lot of it on a Lamborghini was sentenced to more than nine years in prison Monday, federal prosecutors said.

Lee Price III, 30, was sentenced to 110 months on wire fraud and money laundering counts, the Justice Department said. He pleaded guilty in September.

The Houston man received $1.6 million in loans from the Paycheck Protection Program, passed by Congress in March 2020 to help businesses affected by the Covid-19 epidemic.

According to court documents, Price spent some of the money on a Ford F-350 and a Rolex watch, as well as a Lamborghini Urus and a Ford F-350.

More than $700,000 was recovered, according to officials.

Price's attorney, Tom Berg, said Monday night that Price pleaded guilty without conditions.

Berg said in an email that Price hopes that others will learn from his reckoning that there is no easy money. He has a 110 month sentence in which he has to reflect, repent and rebuild his misspent life. The Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, was part of the $2 trillion CARES Act passed by Congress to provide relief to workers and businesses devastated by the epidemic.

The Justice Department said in March that 120 people have been charged with fraud related to the PPP.