SAN ANTONIO — Federal investigators have arrested seven people connected to an east San Antonio small business and charged them with wire fraud.
Prosecutors claim the group worked together to steal money from a program designed to help minority businesses.
The allegations involve Sams Contracting Consulting and Training, which has a business address on East Houston Street just east of I-10.
The indictment alleges Aaron Sams used his business to advertise and market a service to HUB or historically underutilized businesses.
They say instead of helping the small businesses, the group used friends and family members to create fake identities and records and then paid themselves.
The indictment claims Sams and his co-conspirators concealed the fraud by creating fake email addresses in a domain Sams had complete control of, thus ensuring the companies involved could never contact any of the fake employees directly.
The FBI and a number of other federal agencies have been involved in the probe.
The indicted are: 39-year-old Aaron Sams, who owns the firm, 40-year-old Beverly Smith of Converse, 63-year-old Jesus Rodriguez of San Antonio, 35-year-old Uchennaya Ogba of San Antonio, 37-year-old Kristin Harrison of Killeen, 36-year-old Jonathan Adams of Lawrenceville, Georgia and 41-year-old Barbara Sanders of San Antonio.
The seven defendants are each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States.
If convicted, each faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
They are scheduled to have their initial appearances in federal court over the next two days.