New York-American Indian Businessman Cleared of PPP Charges, Says Bank Found No Fraud | Business
A Native American hotel and buffet owner in New York City who was sued by Adirondack Trust Co. for allegedly embezzling $ 1.9 million in federal COVID-19 loans, said bank executives have since admitted that they had found no real evidence of fraud.
The Times Union reports that Niral Patel, owner of the Comfort Inn and Suites in Saratoga Springs as well as the Golden Corral in Wilton and several other Golden Corral franchises in New York and New Jersey, was sued by Adirondack Trust last October after that the bank froze the loan funds, which were obtained through the federal government’s paycheck protection program designed to keep hotels, restaurants and other businesses afloat during the first year of the pandemic.
Patel, a resident of Saratoga Springs, turned around and sued Adirondack Trust for $ 10 million over the allegations and for freezing the loan proceeds. Some of his businesses have also had to file for bankruptcy after he was unable to reopen his restaurants, the publication said.
In a recent filing in the matter, Patel said the bank had no real reason to freeze his account or deny him the PPP loan money – except that they feared he might not be able to repay the loans. Patel also claims the bank’s response was due to underlying racism against his family, who are of Indian descent, even though they have been doing business with Adirondack Trust for 20 years, according to the report.
Adirondack Trust has made “blatant, unsubstantiated and misleading allegations about me in an attempt to justify its decision to deny my businesses access to over $ 1.9 million in funds amid a public health crisis and economic which was already threatening the livelihoods of my businesses. , embarrassed my family, compromised my reputation within the community and with my employees, ”Patel said in an affidavit filed on September 2 in the Saratoga County State Supreme Court, according to the media outlet. .
Patel made an audio recording of a discussion he had with the Adirondack Trust attorney last October in which the attorney told Patel that the bank had “not discovered any evidence of actual fraud” , but had frozen loans due to what the bank believed to be “a lot of bad accounting and bad decisions” on the part of Patel’s companies, according to the report.
In his lawsuit, Adirondack Trust alleged that Patel used the loan proceeds for unauthorized payments.
This claim is “ridiculous and false,” Patel said in his affidavit.
“The filing is the start of an effort to clear my name, my family name and help us get hundreds of people back to work locally and statewide,” Patel said in a later statement released to media. , noted the Times Union. .
