Mauricio Umansky, the ex of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Kyle Richard, is being sued over a $3.5 million PPP loan.
Real estate agent Mauricio, 54, who was married to Kyle, 55, for 27 years, applied for the Payroll Protection Program (PPP) and the CARES Act loan during the pandemic.
The aim of the government loans was to provide financial assistance to struggling businesses as the country grappled with COVID-19, so that layoffs of workers could be avoided.
Mauricio and his business partner William “Billy” Rose were approved for a hefty sum of $3,521,153 for their luxury real estate company called The Agency.
In July 2023, Realtor LLC filed a complaint alleging the agency violated the federal False Claims Act.
Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Kyle Richard’s ex, Mauricio Umansky, has been sued over an alleged $3.5 million PPP loan he was given
Realtor Mauricio, 54, who was married to Kyle, 55, for 27 years before they split, had applied for the Payroll Protection Program (PPP) and the CARES Act loan during the pandemic
Mauricio (R) and his business partner William ‘Billy’ Rose (L) received approval for a hefty $3,521,153 for their luxury real estate company called The Agency
In contact has obtained the court documents, which were recently made public after being filed last summer.
The Agency went through two rounds of applications for the loans.
During the first round, the luxury real estate agency asked for $2.3 million, which was approved.
For the second round, the brand applied for a loan of $1.1 million, which was also approved.
The lawsuit states: “These two programs were established solely to prevent worker layoffs by providing loans to businesses that could not afford them due to the impact of COVID-19. They are not intended to increase or retain the profits of a business that has sufficient resources to pay its workers.”
‘Yet the vast majority of proceeds went to those same businesses, leaving many small businesses, such as restaurants, grocery stores and other small businesses directly impacted by COVID-19, out in the cold due to lost revenue.
“Many of the large, profitable companies got their loans by misrepresenting their financial situation. They said their company was eligible when it wasn’t, or they misrepresented how the funds would be used.”
The filing further states: ‘Their profits would have been minimally affected, if at all, because their revenues were based on a percentage of real estate transactions, typically between millionaires and billionaires, and not on consumers who could not buy goods or eat out due to COVID-19 restrictions.
The purpose of the government loans was to provide money to companies that needed financial assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic so that they could avoid laying off their employees.
In July 2023, Realtor LLC filed a complaint alleging violation of the federal False Claims Act by The Agency (pictured is Kyle and Mauricio’s family on a boat during a vacation)
‘The Agency’s business has grown tremendously during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This is a case of greed during a national public health emergency.”
The lawsuit explained that The Agency had revenues of $6 billion in 2019, which had increased to $6.5 billion in 2020.
It was also highlighted that the company ‘grew to $11.2 billion in revenue in 2021.’
The lawsuit continued: “To receive the loans, defendants falsely represented that “current economic uncertainty makes this loan request necessary to support the applicant’s ongoing operations” and that they needed the loans to pay their employees, a requirement to qualify for PPP loans.
‘In addition, the amounts they requested and received exceeded the loan limit of 2.5 months’ salary, with a maximum of $100,000 per annual salary per employee.
‘In addition to receiving loans based on these false certifications, Defendants later requested and received full loan forgiveness, even though they knew they were not eligible for the loans in the first place.
The PPP loans were not necessary to support Defendants’ ongoing operations and pay their employees’ salaries, nor were they used for such purposes because Defendants had sufficient liquidity to do so.
The agency went through two rounds of applications for the loans. During the first round, the luxury real estate agency asked for $2.3 million, which was approved
For the second round, the brand applied for a $1.1 million loan, which was also approved (pictured are Mauricio, R, and William, L)
“Instead, they have only increased the defendants’ profits.”
The lawsuit continued: “Defendants’ activities revolved around luxury real estate transactions for white-collar millionaires and billionaires, which were unaffected by the pandemic.
The agency does not deal in starter homes, but in luxury properties for the rich and famous, with an average sales price of $1.92 million.
“This is in contrast to small businesses, such as supermarkets, restaurants and other businesses that sell other products and services and that rely on a large influx of customers.”
The fraud to protect profits here is all the more scandalous because [Mauricio] And [Billy]who co-own The Agency are already extremely wealthy individuals, each owning tens of millions of dollars in real estate.
‘Reducing or waiving the profit distribution, if necessary for a certain period, would not have made it financially impossible to keep their business running.’
The broker demanded that the court force each defendant to pay “three times the damages suffered by the United States because of Defendants’ actions, plus a civil penalty of not less than $12,537 nor more than $25,076 for each false claim, as required by law.”
Maurico and The Agency have denied the claims (pictured are Maurico and Kyle on a night out)
Kyle and Mauricio split the same month the lawsuit was filed (pictured is of the two when they were younger)
Maurico and The Agency deny the claims.
A representative for The Agency told InTouch: ‘While we cannot comment on the ongoing litigation, we want to emphasize that The Agency has always acted with the highest degree of integrity in all aspects of our business operations.
“Like many other companies, we faced significant challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, including layoffs and cutbacks.
‘Our focus has always been, and especially during these challenging times, on providing exceptional service to our customers and supporting our employees.
“The claims in this case do not reflect the reality of our operations and financial condition at the time we applied for our PPP loans, and we intend to vigorously defend against these baseless claims.”
Kyle and Mauricio split the same month the lawsuit began.