PETALING JAYA, July 28 — Florida citizen David Hines has been charged with using part of the US$3.9million (RM16.56 million) received from the Paycheck Protection Programme (PPP) to purchase a Lamborghini.

According to a statement by the US Department of Justice, the PPP allows small businesses and other organisations to receive loans for payroll costs, interest on mortgages, rent and utilities.

It was fundamentally designed to provide financial funding to aid millions of Americans who are suffering from the economic effects resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Hines, 29, who hails from Miami was charged with one count of bank fraud, one count of making false statements to a financial institution and one count of engaging in transactions in unlawful proceeds, according to the statement.

The statement also said that authorities had seized the Lamborghini Huracan sports car worth US$318,000, and a total of US$3.4 million.

CBS News reported that initially Hines wanted to borrow a total of US$13.5 million through applications on behalf of different companies which included false statements about employee payroll expenses.

The bank, however, only approved the US$3.9 million in loans and within a few days, Hines bought the Lamborghini which he jointly registered under his name and the name of one of his companies.

The charging documents, however, read that the purported employees never existed nor earned a fraction of what Hines had claimed in his PPP applications.