(Radio Iowa) – A man who was working at an Iowa meatpacking plant will spend four years in federal prison for his role in a scheme to illegally get federal loans during the pandemic that were for business owners.
The U-S Justice Department says Yovny Ciero is a former sergeant in Cuba’s military who’s been living in the U-S for nearly 20 years after illegally crossing the Mexican border. Ciero was working at the meatpacking plant in Algona when the pandemic began, but he is one of over one-hundred Cuban immigrants accused of applying and getting Paycheck Protection Program loans in 2020 after claiming to be self-employed, with a six-figure income in 2019.

Court records indicate Ciero was one of six “bundlers” in the scheme that submitted over four-MILLION dollars’ worth of fraudulent loan applications. Ciero got a loan for himself and a person the Justice Department describes as his paramour. Ciero and used the money to buy a pick-up and get a loan for a home in Mason City.

A jury found Ciero guilty of several wire fraud and money laundering charges. Ciero is one of five former Iowa meatpacking plant workers sentenced in this pandemic scheme. Two women and two men pleaded guilty and were each sentenced to less than a year in prison and ordered to pay restitution.