Kaysville man sentenced for stealing over $300K of federal and state funds during COVID-19 pandemic

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — A man from Kaysville has been sentenced for running a scheme that stole $392,900 using COVID fraud, identity theft, wire fraud, and state unemployment benefits fraud.

Mubarak Ukashat, 38, pleaded guilty to failure to file currency and other monetary instruments reports. He was sentenced to two years in prison, and he will also have to pay back the money he stole and an additional $101,000 in forfeiture.

In 2020, he was a graduate student at Utah State University, and he was also the president of the USU Student Association (USUSA) Muslim Student Club.

Between June 2020 and July 2020, he fraudulently obtained $333,900 in Economic Injury Disaster Loans by submitting four loan applications to the U.S. Small Business Association. He used the names and social security numbers of four random but real people in the applications.

After receiving the loans, he wire transferred the money to the USUSA Muslim Student Club bank account, which he had control over as the club president, and again moved the proceeds to another bank account, a joint account he held with a relative. He then used the funds for “unauthorized personal expenses,” according to a press release from the District of Utah U.S. Attorney’s Office.

He also fraudulently obtained nearly $60,000 in unemployment insurance benefits.

He used the money to pay for a GMC Yukon, nearly $30,000 in electronics, a car loan, debt payments, a house payment, and college expenses. He also transferred over $100,000 outside of the United States to countries like Nigeria and Dubai.

Ukashat initially was facing much more serious charges, like wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and money laundering, but the charges were downgraded as part of a plea deal.

Economic Injury Disaster Loans were low-interest loans made available through the Small Business Association after the passage of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act). They were meant to be available to small businesses experiencing financial hardship because of the COVID-19 pandemic.