12-12-2022 3:00pm

Beverly Hills Father and Son Sentenced to Prison

Anita Johnson-Brown Editor

LOS ANGELES – A father and son were sentenced on December 12, 2022, to a federal prison sentence for defrauding government programs created to aid businesses, during the economic perils of the COVID-19 pandemic.

LOS ANGELES –Ramiro Da Rosa Mendes, 61, a resident of Beverly Hills was sentenced to 41 months in federal prison by United States District Judge Percy Anderson, who also ordered him to pay $2,228,302 in restitution.

In a separate case, Judge Anderson today sentenced Ammon Jose de Pina Mendes, 27, Ramiro’s son, also a resident of Beverly Hills, to 21 months in federal prison and ordered him to pay $222,225 in restitution.

Ramiro and Ammon Mendes both pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud in September 2022.

From April 2020 to August 2020, Ramiro Mendes conspired to fraudulently obtain federal disaster relief funds allocated through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) programs.

Ramiro Mendes claimed to own numerous fake businesses purportedly based in Beverly Hills, including One Wilshire Enterprises, Professional Music Services, and MB Property Management Group LLC. These companies were fake businesses that did not exist before the COVID-19 pandemic and did not have any operations or employees.

The defendant also claimed to be the proprietor of phony real estate services companies, including Ramiro Mendes Real Estate Services, Real Estate Services, and Real Estate Invesst-ments, also located in Beverly Hills and Massachusetts, as well as other businesses registered in Wyoming.

Ramiro Mendes submitted nineteen applications for PPP and EIDL loans that included defrauding and fraudulent information, including the purported existence of payroll costs, fake tax forms, and the active status of the businesses.

As an example, on June 24, 2020, Ramiro Mendes submitted a fraudulent PPP loan application to a Florida-based bank, seeking a loan of $975,100. The loan application falsely said that One Wilshire Enterprises employed 18 individuals, with an average monthly payroll of $390,040, and, according to a false tax form, earned $4,810,149 in revenue in 2019.

Based on this false information, the bank approved and funded a PPP loan for $793,300. The bank loan was wired into a bank account Mendes was in charge of.

Ramiro Mendes pocketed the COVID-relief loans and misused the profits for his advantage, including the purchase of cryptocurrency. He additionally confessed that the intended loss, in this matter, was about $6,708,963 and the actual loss was at least around $2,228,302.

Ammon Mendes admitted he utilized information from fake businesses to fraudulently obtain $225,225 in PPP and EIDL loans.

Another son of Ramiro Mendes – Mateus Pina Mendes, 33, of downtown Los Angeles, also pleaded guilty in September to wire fraud and admitted fraudulently obtaining $143,283 in PPP and EIDL loans. Mateus Mendes is scheduled for a sentencing hearing on January 10, 2023.

This case was investigated by the FBI; the Federal Housing Finance Agency – Office of the Inspector General; the United States Postal Inspection Service; the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation – Office of the Inspector General; the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration – Office of the Inspector General; IRS Criminal Investigation; and the Small Business Administration – Office of the Inspector General.

Assistant United States Attorney Scott Paetty of the Major Frauds Section and Trial Attorney Jennifer Bilinkas of the Justice Department’s Fraud Section are prosecuting this case.

Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud Hotline at (866) 720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at: https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.

Updated by Anita Johnson-Brown, Monday, December 12, 2022