Mauricio Umansky is being accused of fraud after he and his real estate firm, The Agency, applied for and were granted $3,521,153.00 in pandemic relief loans.
In a lawsuit filed by Realtor LLC, it was alleged that Mauricio, 54, and his firm received two Payroll Protection Program (PPP) and CARES Act loans, which were developed for employers who were not able to pay their staff due to the financial challenges that arose amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to court documents obtained by Us Weekly on August 29, the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills cast member and former Buying Beverly Hills star and his business allegedly “falsely” certified their need for funds.
In court documents, it was revealed that the amounts The Agency “applied for and received exceeded the loan limit of 2.5 monthly salary with a cap of $100,000 annual salary per employee.”
Meanwhile, as Realtor LLC claimed in its lawsuit, The Agency likely didn’t feel the hardships of the pandemic in a substantial way because its revenue came from transactions “typically between millionaires and billionaires.”
They even shared that The Agency “grew massively” amid the pandemic, earning $6.5 billion in 2020 and $11.2 billion in 2021.
“With this knowledge, Defendants would have retained significant reserves to continue to pay their employees. To do otherwise would have been grossly irresponsible, especially for experts in the real estate markets,” the documents stated. “As alleged above, Defendants expressly did not hold themselves out as grossly irresponsible and their experience and success confirms they were not.”
In response to the case against them, in which Realtor LLC demanded Mauricio and The Agency pay three times the amount of damages, Mauricio and The Agency shared a statement, denying wrongdoing.
“While we are unable to comment on ongoing litigation, we want to emphasize that The Agency has always operated with the highest level of integrity in all aspects of our business. Like many companies, we faced significant challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, including layoffs and cutbacks,” they stated. “Our focus has always been, and especially during that challenging period, on delivering exceptional service to our customers and supporting our employees. The claims in this case do not reflect the reality of our operations and financial situation at the time we filed for our PPP loans, and we intend to vigorously defend against these meritless claims.”
Prior to the lawsuit being filed against him and his company, Mauricio was dealt with the disappointing news of Buying Beverly Hills being canceled by Netflix after just two seasons.
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