How An Arizona Man Stole Millions From The Government

A million dollars could solve literally every single problem in my life. It would take me from my one-bedroom apartment to a modest house, from tallying every grocery I buy to dining out every night.

Imagine what I could do with $178 Million.

That's how much one Arizona man was able to scam the government out of, but how did he do it?

Taking Advantage of a National Crisis

You can't just steal hundreds of millions from under the nose of the government. We have too many systems in place to ensure a theft of this magnitude never happens. What happens if those systems break? That's exactly what happened in March of 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic raced across the globe.

Because of the widespread shutdowns, the government felt a need to intervene in order to keep the economy from crashing. They began to bail businesses out of a situation they couldn't possibly hope to fix themselves, and for a short while, this plan worked!

That's where our anti-hero comes in.

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Read More: The State of Arizona is Killing Free Speech

Fake Businesses Make Real Money

The plan began when the federal government started the Paycheck Protection Program. This was a program that would offer businesses 8 weeks of payroll for paychecks, maintenance, and rent. Eric Karnezis, a Sedona resident, saw merit in this program, and along with three conspirators from California, began to defraud it.

Karnezis and his team began forging tax forms and payroll information to submit over 1,300 applications, for a payout of around $178 Million. Only about $105 Million was ever paid out, but that was more than enough.

Eventually, on September 5th, 2024, Karnezis was arrested in Sedona, and plead not guilty.

[NBC12][US Treasury]