A 52-year-old Kaua‘i man earlier this week was sentenced to 14 months in federal prison and ordered to pay more than $1.4 million in restitution to Small Business Administration for stealing COVID-19 relief funds.
Ethan Page of Kekaha was sentenced April 15. The court also added 3 years of supervised release after Page serves his prison term.
His sentencing followed his pleading guilty to making a false statement to Small Business Association officials.
U.S. Congress enacted the American Rescue Plan Act in early spring 2021, establishing the Restaurant Revitalization Fund to provide support to eligible entities in the food service industry that suffered revenue losses related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A qualifying business was required to submit an application to Small Business Administration, signed by an authorized representative of the business, to obtain Restaurant Revitalization funding.
An awardee was not required to repay funds received through the program unless they were used for an unauthorized purpose.
The program required an awardee to submit a post-award report disclosing whether and to what extent the awardee spent Restaurant Revitalization funds for eligible expenses.
Page on or about May 16, 2021, submitted a Restaurant Revitalization application for his business Hanapēpē Design Studio, seeking more than $1.4 million in relief funds.
Small Business Association approved the application and deposited the requested funds into a Hanapēpē Design Studio bank account. Page then transferred $1.3 million to his personal investment account at another institution.
He then used the remaining $100,000 for other ineligible expenses.
Page on or about Dec. 22, 2021, signed and submitted a post-award report to Small Business Administration, in which he falsely certified he used all of the relief money for Hanapēpē Design Studio expenses that were eligible for Restaurant Revitalization funds, such as payroll, rent/mortgage, utilities and other business operating expenses.
Small Business Administration would have required Hanapēpē Design Studio to repay the funds had Page accurately reported how he used the funds.
The case was investigated by Federal Bureau of Investigation and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Craig Nolan and Gregg Yates.
