SYRACUSE, NY (CortacaToday) – An Ithaca man will spend time in federal prison for COVID-19 pandemic loan fraud.

On Wednesday, October 9, 2024, Ejembi Onah was sentenced to two years on charges related to obtaining Paycheck Program loans he was not entitled to. Onah was charged with two counts of wire fraud and three counts of transacting in criminally derived property.

The 61-year-old was convicted in October of 2023 and received substantially less time than he was facing. During his 2023 non-jury trial, the government proved that Onah submitted two PPP loan applications in June 2020 to do different lenders. The applications included misleading info about his payroll and number of employees for Onah’s company, which he claimed was a seasonal nanotechnology business. Onah supported his applications with falsified tax returns and received over $140,000.

Prosecutors say Onah used that money for personal expenses, including rent, and a luxury care lease. Onah is additionally ordered to pay nearly $220,000 in restitution and will serve a two-year term of supervised release when he gets out.