Man accused of using COVID-19 relief funds on Lamborghini gets prison

A Lamborghini luxury sports car in Vancouver, on May 16, 2019. (Jonathan Hayward / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

HOUSTON -

A Houston man has been sentenced to more than nine years in prison after he was accused of using federal COVID-19 relief funding on a Lamborghini, a Rolex watch and trips to strip clubs, federal prosecutors said.

Lee Price III, 30, was sentenced Monday to 110 months in prison. Price pleaded guilty in September to wire fraud and money laundering.

"Mr. Price hopes that others will learn from his reckoning that there is no easy money," Price's lawyer Tom Berg said in an email to news outlets. "He has the balance of the 110-month sentence to reflect, repent and rebuild his misspent life."

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Prosecutors accused Price of fraudulently using more than US$1.6 million in funding from the Paycheck Protection Program, which gave low-interest loans to small businesses struggling during the pandemic.

According to prosecutors, Price also used the money to buy an $85,000 pickup truck and to pay off a loan on a residential property.

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