Ambulance company owner faces over 100 years in federal prison for alleged COVID-19 relief fraud

The US Department of Justice said Merdad 'Mitch' Tabrizi of Aliso Viejo was charged with four counts of wire fraud, four counts of money laundering, two counts of tax evasion and two counts of filing false tax returns. If convicted as charged, Tabrizi faces a maximum of 136 years in federal prison. At the height of the pandemic, Tabrizi allegedly submitted two fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program claims on behalf of his Riverside-based company, Life Fleet Inc.

The Department of Justice said Life Fleet was allegedly not in business, had no revenue and had no employees. Federal prosecutors said he also filed another fraudulent EIDL claim for Resonante Group Inc., an Anaheim-based company controlled by Tabrizi. The application claimed the business had gross revenues of more than $19 million and over 300 employees, according to the indictment. The Small Business Administration sent $319,800 to bank accounts controlled by Tabrizi.

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The Cloud 100 2024: Submissions Open For List Of Cloud Computing’s Best Private CompaniesI am a staff writer covering venture capital, startups and AI. I am based in San Francisco and work on the technology team. Previously, I covered tech billionaires as a wealth reporter. I graduated from Duke University, where I spent time as news editor for The Chronicle, the university's independent news organization.
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