Two Texas Men Heading to Prison for Million Dollar SBA Loan Fraud

December 19, 2014

By Bob Coleman
Editor, Coleman Report Afternoon Brief

prisonThe conspiracy began in March 2008 when Ismail Mohammad agreed to buy Mohammed Yaseen’s Passport Inn Motel in Columbus, Texas for a price of $1.2 million.

Mohammad obtained a SBA guaranteed loan from Westbound Bank in Houston which required he make a cash injection of his own money, paid to the seller outside of the loan closing.

However, as part of the scheme, Yaseen actually provided Mohammad with checks totaling $55,000 in order to fraudulently represent to the bank as proof of payment made by Mohammed, in violation of SBA loan program rules. Yaseen also provided Mohammad his bank statements showing more than $100,000 in assets, which Mohammad changed to reflect his company name and presented to the bank as part of the loan package.

After the loan closed, $950,000 was wired from New York to Yaseen’s bank in Houston on May 30, 2008.

In July 2009, Mohammad agreed with Yaseen to obtain a new loan of $510,000 for construction of more hotel rooms at the Columbus location, a project for which Yaseen would serve as general contractor. Yaseen admitted today that he provided Mohammad with funds that were fraudulently used to show Mohammad’s cash injection for the second SBA guaranteed loan.

After several years, Mohammad defaulted on the loans and the bank and the SBA incurred a loss of more than $1 million.

Yaseen, a citizen of Pakistan with no legal status in the United States, will remain in custody pending transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future. He got 33 months in jail.

Mohammad, sentenced to six months, was permitted to remain on bond and voluntarily surrender to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.