A Virginia lawyer was sentenced to 15 years and eight months in prison for his role in a scheme that resulted in more than $100 million in losses on loans backed by the U.S. Small Business Administration, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Joon Park admitted that from 2003 to October 2011, he and his co-conspirators submitted SBA loan applications with fraudulent documents including counterfeit cashier’s checks and falsified bank statements and tax returns, U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein of Maryland said yesterday. The phony paperwork was used to persuade SBA officials to approve loans under a program that requires business owners to invest specified amounts of their own money. Taxpayers, through the SBA, guaranteed 75 percent to 90 percent of each loan, with lenders on the hook for the rest, according to Rosenstein.
