Joshua Bellamy, a former wide receiver for the New York Jets, is facing charges of fraud using coronavirus relief funds for his own personal use, as reported by CNN.
The Justice Department announced the charges against the former NFL player on Friday, where he was charged in the Southern District of Florida. Among the charges were wire fraud, bank fraud, and conspiracy to commit wire- and bank-fraud.
According to the charges, Bellamy managed to get a loan of over $1.2 million for his company, Drip Entertainment LLC, only to use over $100,000 of that money to buy things such as jewelry and clothing for himself. He is also alleged to have spent nearly $63,000 of that money at a Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Seminole, Florida.
Even the acquisition of the loan was fraud, according to the DOJ, since one of Bellamy’s associates used “falsified documents” to obtain the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan. After submitting an initial PPP application, the associate in question “worked with other co-conspirators, including Bellamy, on a scheme to submit numerous fraudulent PPP loan applications.”
In response to a request for comment, the Jets disavowed Bellamy and simply said “Josh is no longer with us.” Bellamy’s attorneys issued a statement defending him as “a good and decent man,” and hoped that “the public will give him the benefit of the doubt at this time,” while also mostly blaming the alleged crimes on the associate “taking advantage of” Bellamy.