The boss of a glass fitting company in rural England has been sentenced to almost two years in prison for illegally using a Covid-19 government loan for gambling and cryptocurrencies.
Haralambos Ioannou, from Cow Lane, Edlesborough, was sentenced this week to 22 months in prison and 150 hours of unpaid work for illegally securing two £50,000 (approximately $66,500) coronavirus bounceback loans from the British government and using the second loan for personal expenses.
During COVID-19, businesses were only allowed to receive one such payment. Ioannou was able to get two bounce back loans approved in the summer of 2020.
He duly used his first £50,000 to fund a glass fitting company, also known as a glazing company, while his second payment was used for cryptocurrency investments, gambling sites, cash withdrawals and payments to his now ex-wife.
Ioannou was also ordered today to pay compensation of 40,000 pounds (approximately $53,200).
Britain’s Insolvency Service, which deals with financial misconduct, did not immediately respond. decryptionseeks comment asking whether the unpaid work required of Mr. Ioannou is glazing or another form of work.
It was also not disclosed which cryptocurrency apps or specific tokens Glazer, 49, invested his ill-gotten funds into. The Insolvency Service said about 8,000 pounds ($10,650) of the loan proceeds were transferred to an “investment and cryptocurrency investment” company.
A further 25,000 pounds ($33,250) was transferred to gambling companies.
At the height of lockdown in 2020, the decentralized financial ecosystem It explodedthe value of funds locked in the ecosystem has increased more than 20 times. Bitcoin’s price doubled by the end of the year. Ethereum has more than quadrupled.
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