Hey NASA...Maybe all your employees should grow some andrelax a little more. You might understand the 5 states of Infinity that we exist within and what it means especially when only 4 existed before.
An employee of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) pled guilty to federal charges Monday alleging that he used COVID relief funds earmarked for the organization to finance an illegal marijuana cultivation operation and pay off personal real estate loans, the US Justice Department announced.
Armen Hovanesian, 32 and a resident of Glendale, Arizona, made false and fraudulent statements on three loan applications made out to business entities under his control between June and October of 2020.
Hovanesian received a total of $151,900 for loans provided by the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program (EIDL) – a program administered by the Small Business Administration (SBA) that provided financing to small businesses, renters, and homeowners in regions impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Hovanesian assured the EIDL he would use the loan proceeds “solely as working capital to alleviate economic injury caused by disaster,” as per the terms and limitations of the EIDL program.
Hovanesian instead used the funds to pay off personal real-estate debts and start an illegal marijuana growing operation – a crime that carries a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.