Washington man lied to get $1.1 million in COVID-19 relief funds, feds say

A Washington business owner has been charged with wire fraud after he filed multiple applications with false information to get $1.1 million in COVID-19 relief funds, according to the United States Department of Justice.

Austin Hsu, 46, of Issaquah, is accused of submitting “nine fraudulent disaster loan applications” for five companies, a release from the DOJ said. Hsu is the owner and CEO of a company called Blackrock Services P.S., which operates as “Back 2 Health Bellevue,” according to the release.

Hsu applied for the money guaranteed to small businesses through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, the release said.

He received the funds for Back 2 Health, ”then used the names of Back 2 Heath’s current and former employees to apply for additional PPP loans under the names of other companies that he owned and controlled,” according to the release.

Hsu also submitted “fake federal tax filings” and “made numerous false and misleading statements about the companies’ respective business and operations” in the submitted applications, the release said.

“For example, Hsu incorporated a company named Blueline Capital LLC in June 2020 for the purpose of applying for an EIDL loan in July 2020, and then misrepresented to the [Small Business Administration] that Blueline had been in business since 2017 and that, as of Jan. 31, 2020, Blueline had nine employees and gross receipts of over $1.5 million,” the release said.

The company actually “had no business or operations,” according to the release.