by Dana Gentry, Nevada Current
A federally-funded state program that provides loans in various forms to help small businesses is out $937,000 after falling prey to a fake identity scheme that may not be confined to Nevada.
“It’s a very clever scam,” says Christine Guerci, the chief legal and compliance officer of Battle Born Growth, the nonprofit contracted by the Governor’s Office of Economic Development to deploy more than $100 million in federal funds to assist small and medium-sized businesses.
Guerci says the public shouldn’t be concerned. “It’s federal funds that were stolen, not any individual’s money.”
Andrea Vigil, chief operating officer and co-founder of Allegiant Electric in Las Vegas, is feeling victimized, nonetheless. Last month she learned from Guerci that Battle Born Growth provided $937,000 to First Citizens Bank in the form of a collateral meant to help the bank make a loan to Allegiant Electric, a loan for which Vigil never applied.
“I’ve applied twice for $250,000 loans elsewhere and been denied. How could I get a loan for $937,000?” she wondered in an interview.
Guerci says a person she declined to name “approached our organization and purported that they were associated with First Citizens Bank, had an email that was similar to First Citizens and appeared to be a First Citizens employee.”
Guerci says the person applied for a collateral support loan from Battle Born Growth on behalf of First Citizens Bank to enable the bank to make a loan to Vigil’s Allegiant Electric.
Vigil says Karsten Heise of the Governor’s Office for Economic Development told her the scam is not confined to Nevada and is being investigated in other states. He did not respond to requests for comment.
Battle Born Growth is a non-profit created by legislation requested by the Governor’s Office of Economic Development in 2015 to house federal funds from the State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI), which is “designed to catalyze private capital in the form of loans to and investments in small businesses, especially in historically underserved communities and among entrepreneurs who may have otherwise lacked the support needed to pursue their business ambitions,” says GOED’s website. The program requires each dollar invested by the government be matched by private funds.
The federal government’s initial grant to Nevada to revitalize businesses during the Great Recession was $13 million. The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) reauthorized funding and distributed $10 billion – including nearly $100 million for Nevada – to the states to spur post-pandemic investment.
“It’s a program for businesses who are trying to get loans for fixtures and various things, but don’t have enough collateral to support the loan. So the bank itself makes the loan, and what we do is provide a cash deposit that’s held by the bank as collateral for the loan,” Guerci explained.
When Guerci at Battle Born Growth received a bank statement from First Citizens, where the $937,000 was deposited and to remain as collateral for the loan Battle Born Growth thought the bank made to Allegiant Electric, the account balance was zero.
“That’s when I reached out to Andrea to say, ‘Hey, did you in fact, get this loan?’ Because that’s when I started to suspect that this was not a real transaction,” Guerci recounts.
‘This all really just happened’
“In my career, I’ve never seen this kind of situation,” Jeremy Alexander-Hester of First Citizens Bank said on a phone call. “I don’t know everything yet. I’ve been trying to work with Andrea to get documents.” He declined to elaborate and referred the Current to a bank executive who did not respond by deadline.
Battle Born Growth’s current process is to provide its documents to a bank inquiring about a collateral loan. “We have all kinds of federal requirements. The bank has to provide us with documents, and then we provide documents to the bank to have the borrower fill out.”
Loan documents completed by the fraudster and returned to Battle Born Growth list Allegiant Electric, LLC as the borrower. The loan document is dated May 2023.
A month later, in late June 2023, the Nevada Secretary of State accepted a corporate filing under the name NBBGEI Nevada CSP Allegiant LLC. The corporate officer is listed as Tamari Tameko Deloach. The listed address is a home that was sold days earlier.
Las Vegan Robert Goodwin says he rented a Sun City Summerlin home at the same address to Deloach and others, who Goodwin says paid no rent in two and a half years until they were evicted around August 2022. “It took me forever to get them out because of Covid.”
A document provided by Goodwin to the Current indicates Tamari Perkins, another name Deloach uses, according to her former landlord, received a Patient Protection Program loan in 2021 for $28,333 for a janitorial service.
Goodwin says he has not been contacted by law enforcement.
Chief Mike Edgell of the Nevada Department of Public Safety Investigative Division declined to discuss an ongoing probe.
The Office of Inspector General, which is conducting the investigation on behalf of the U.S.. Treasury Dept. according to Guerci, said it “neither confirms nor denies investigation of such matter.”
In a joint statement, Gov. Joe Lombardo and the Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development said they “recently uncovered evidence of fraudulent activity that impacted the State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) Program,” and declined comment because of the investigation.
“This all really just happened, so there’s not a lot available at the moment,” says Guerci. “We’ve just been told to sit tight while the investigations take off.”
“Occasionally, we hear of others claiming to direct or manage Battle Born Growth funds or programs,” says Battle Born Growth’s website. “They do not, and we encourage you to drop us a line if you are approached by any other companies claiming involvement in the program.”
But Guerci, a former longtime deputy attorney general, says fraud hasn’t previously been an issue for Battle Born Growth. “Now we’re going to have to change our processes to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.”
