A Herndon man who previously represented western Fairfax County in the Virginia House of Delegates will avoid jail time after admitting to fraudulently obtaining a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan.
Democrat Ibraheem Samirah, who represented the old 86th district from 2019 until 2022, was sentenced yesterday (Thursday) by a federal judge in Alexandria to three years of probation for fraudulently obtaining the $83,300 loan for his dentist practice, NOVA Healthy Smiles (NHS), in May 2020.
The 34-year-old Samirah, who pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud earlier this year, is also required to pay restitution of more than $88,000 to the Small Business Association.
According to federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia, Samirah “falsely represented” his practice when applying for the coronavirus-era small business loan, allowing him to obtain more funds than he was legally allowed for payroll and other business expenses.
Specifically, Samirah had “falsely certified that NHS had four employees and an average monthly payroll of $33,333.32” before the funds were disbursed, according to a statement of facts.
“He applied for a PPP loan for NHS and knew that the numbers of employees, the identities of the employees, the payroll figures, the revenue figures and the supporting documents that were provided to the lender and the U.S. government … were false,” federal prosecutors wrote.
Once the funds were disbursed, Samirah led a scheme to funnel money away from the alleged employee bank accounts and into his own, according to a statement of facts.
Court documents state that Samirah, on multiple instances, withdrew some amount of money from one or multiple employee bank accounts before depositing a nearly-identical amount of money into his own accounts.
Between two days of June 2020, for example, a total of $4,340 was withdrawn from the bank account for “Employee 1.” On June 16, that same amount of money was deposited into Samirah’s personal Bank of America account, prosecutors said.
Like many others, the PPP loan granted to NHS was forgiven by the Small Business Association in 2021.
“While I can’t comment on the specifics of my case,” Samirah told FFXnow, “at a time of increasing political persecution of Virginians, I worry about the increasing politicization of our justice system.”
Samirah won a 2019 special election to fill Jennifer Boysko’s seat in the House of Delegates after she was elected to the Virginia Senate. After ruffling some feathers in decorum-focused Richmond, he drew a primary challenge in the 2021 election cycle and was narrowly defeated in a tense race by Irene Shin, who won that November and is seeking reelection in what’s now the 8th House District next week.
Samirah has run in two state Senate elections and one House of Delegates election since then, losing all three.
Despite his federal felony conviction, however, Samirah is not barred from holding state office in the future.
Photo via campaign website
