Shelby Township man sentenced in $2.5 million COVID-19 fraud scheme

SHELBY TOWNSHIP — A Shelby Township man was sentenced this month for his role in what authorities are calling a multimillion-dollar Paycheck Protection Program fraud scheme.

Samer Kammo, 46, was sentenced to 36 months in prison by a federal court judge in Detroit Feb. 13, according to the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan Jerome Gorgon. As part of his sentence, Kammo was also ordered to pay $2,493,348.50 in restitution.

Authorities said Kammo and his co-conspirators — Rita Shaba, 39, of Macomb Township, and Christina Anasi, 35, of Shelby Township  — submitted fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program applications for several businesses. The applications misrepresented payroll information and falsely certified that the loan funds would be used for permissible business-related purposes. The defendants, according to authorities, also submitted fictitious payroll, health insurance, bank and tax records to support the loan applications.

The defendants, according to court records, received nearly $2.5 million in fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program loan funds.

“This defendant and his co-conspirators tried to cheat the system by exploiting a federal relief program meant to help Americans in need. Let this case send a clear message: crime does not pay,” Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Detroit Field Office Jennifer Runyan said in a prepared statement. “FBI Detroit and (Homeland Security Investigations) Detroit stand shoulder to shoulder in holding fraudsters accountable and protecting taxpayer dollars. If you abuse government programs for personal gain, you will be found, and you will face serious consequences under the law.”

The Paycheck Protection Program was created by Congress to provide assistance to businesses harmed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kammo, Shaba and Anasi were indicted by a federal grand jury in May 2023 and all pleaded guilty last year to conspiring to commit wire fraud and bank fraud.

Shaba was previously sentenced to 27 months’ imprisonment while Anasi, Kammo’s wife, had not yet been sentenced at press time.

Jared Murphey, a special agent in charge with Homeland Security Investigations in Detroit, said that although the pandemic occurred years ago, investigators remain committed to holding fraudsters accountable.

“By now, the writing on the wall should be crystal clear: if you fraudulently obtained government funds during the pandemic, you will be held accountable,” Murphey said in a prepared statement.

Attorneys for the defendants — which include Kammo’s attorney, Shawn Desai; Shaba’s attorney, Arthur Weiss; and Anasi’s attorneys, Wade Fink and Efstathios T. Kiousis — could not be reached for comment at press time.