Former Georgia lawyer admits to COVID-19 fund scam, real estate scandal

**ATLANTA** - Sanjay Patel, a former attorney who operated a Georgia-based real estate law firm, has pleaded guilty to fraudulently obtaining nearly $300,000 in Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) during the COVID-19 pandemic and laundering more than $250,000 from unrelated investor fraud schemes through his attorney escrow account. "This office will remain steadfast in coordinating with our federal law enforcement partners to identify and hold accountable those who defrauded the government’s COVID relief programs," said U. S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan.

"It is especially aggravating that Patel, an attorney, not only used his professional standing to commit money laundering, but he also defrauded the American taxpayer out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. " Patel’s guilty plea marks another step in the ongoing effort to combat pandemic-related fraud. Federal authorities have worked since the early days of the pandemic to address the misuse of relief funds aimed at supporting small businesses. According to prosecutors, between August 2020 and March 2021, Patel submitted four fraudulent EIDL applications to the Small Business Administration (SBA), seeking at least $421,000. In these applications, Patel misrepresented the number of employees at his law firm, Worden & Associates, its gross revenues, and, in at least one case, the very existence of the business itself.