Plano dentist pleads guilty to COVID-19 fraud charges over PPP loans

A Plano dentist will repay $1.49 million and spend 18 months in federal prison after being sentenced for wire fraud involving two Paycheck Protection Program loans he received.

Brian Bui, 43, was sentenced after pleading guilty to wire fraud, according to the U.S. attorney’s office for Texas’ eastern district.

Bui submitted paperwork with false information, including fabricated documents where he exaggerated his number of employees and lied about monthly payroll expenses, to obtain PPP loans totaling $1.89 million, according to court documents. PPP was a pandemic-era program that handed out $800 billion to help businesses pay their employees during government-mandated shutdowns and the ensuing recovery.

Bui’s attorney, J. Michael Price II, said he considered the sentence to be “extremely fair.”

“I think after reviewing all the facts in the case, (Judge Sean D. Jordan) came to a fair conclusion,” Price said.

Prosecutors said Bui used the forgivable loans for personal investments and renovations to his dentistry business building, which he posted about on Facebook in August 2020.

The government has been aggressively pursuing business owners who fraudulently obtained PPP money. The Small Business Administration, which oversaw the program, estimated that at least 70,000 loans were potentially fraudulent.

Three University of Texas researchers last year said they discovered as many as 1.4 million questionable loans totaling more than $64 billion.

In 2021, a Coppell man pleaded guilty to fraudulently obtaining more than $17 million in PPP funds that he used to buy multiple homes and an assortment of luxury vehicles. Earlier this year, 23 North Texans were charged in what federal authorities described as a money-laundering conspiracy totaling more than $3.5 million and involving pandemic relief programs, romance scams, business email compromises and unemployment insurance fraud.