In 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act authorized the U.S. Agriculture Department’s Farm Service Agency to assist certain distressed borrowers who had fallen behind on repaying their federally guaranteed farm loans. Asjid Parvez, 37, was one such borrower, having defaulted on a loan that he had used to purchase a Maryland chicken farm in 2014, authorities said.
Parvez admitted that in May, the FSA sent him a $972,565 U.S. Treasury check. Parvez knew he needed to use the funds to pay off the federally guaranteed farm loan on which he had defaulted. Instead, he stole the money and used the funds to pay personal expenses and for real estate investments, authorities said. Parvez allegedly stole the money by opening a bank account in the name of his lender, depositing the Treasury check – which was jointly payable to the defendant and the lender – into that account and then quickly transferring the Treasury funds to other accounts that he controlled.
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Parvez pleaded guilty to one count of theft of government property and face up to 10 years in prison, up to three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000 when he is sentenced on May 2. Parvez has also agreed to pay $972,564.61 in restitution to the FSA.
The FBI also has already seized $516,974 traceable to the federal funds that Parvez stole, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Asset Recovery Unit has filed a civil action seeking the forfeiture of a residential property in Albany that was purchased using about $202,675 in stolen funds, prosecutors said.
