The Carnegie man financed a lavish life-style with greater than $ 2.5 million in fraudulently obtained PPP loans – WPXI

PITTSBURGH – As businesses closed, workers battled unemployment, and families waited in long lines for donations from food banks, Randy Frasinelli lived big in the pandemic.

The Carnegie man bought a Ford Mustang, two Mercedes SUVs, a BMW sedan, a Land Rover Defender, a Porsche Panamera, gold bars, silver coins, watches, works of art, firearms, jewelry, dined, went shopping and gave up free Alcohol.

Frasinelli received the money from four paycheck protection loans, a program launched by the government to help businesses stay afloat in the pandemic and pay workers, mortgages and rents.

The problem? The four Frasinelli stores mentioned in his loan applications do not exist. He also forged pay slips for non-existent employees, forged tax records, and other federal documents.

Frasinelli is now charged with bank fraud and money laundering and appeared for the first time before federal judge Maureen P. Kelly on Thursday. He faces a preliminary hearing on April 28th.

Between May and July 2020, Frasinelli fraudulently applied for and received a PPP loan for each of the four companies it allegedly owned: Grant-Williams Associates; Grant-Williams Global; Grant-Williams International and Grant-Williams Associates Corporation.

When federal investigators began looking into Frasinelli’s business dealings in February, they froze his four bank accounts with a cumulative total balance of $ 5,657.24. Authorities ransacked his home and other property and confiscated numerous vehicles and other belongings.

On Tuesday, they discovered that on March 13, 2021, Frasinelli was able to obtain a fifth PPP loan of $ 1.34 million for a company on its own behalf. In loan documents, he said the money will be used to maintain the jobs of 53 employees.