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Arroyo Grande couple plead guilty to fraud, facing decades in prison

August 30, 2024

Christopher and Erin Mazzei bought a condo at this development in Kapolei, Hawaii for $820,000 in Dec. 2020.

By KAREN VELIE

An Arroyo Grande couple who scammed the federal government out of more than a million dollars they used to purchase a condo in Hawaii pleaded guilty this week to conspiring to commit wire fraud and money laundering.

The couple, Christopher and Erin Mazzei, are both facing sentences of up to 40 years in prison, fines of up to $1,250,000, restitution, and up to five years supervised release, according to their plea agreements.  The couple also agreed to the forfeiture of their home at 1769 Oak Hill Road in Arroyo Grande, their condo in Kapolei Hawaii and $625,993 previously seized from the couple’s financial accounts.

After obtaining $1,365,000 in forgivable Paycheck Protection Program loan funds intended for COVID-19 relief for their film production and catering companies, the couple then purchased a condo in Hawaii and two SUVs.

The couple submitted fraudulent loan applications based on false payroll expenses and then spent the funds on personal items.

On April 13, 2020, Christopher Mazzei applied for a PPP loan for Gusto on the Go catering claiming he was the only owner of the San Luis Obispo based company, which he reported had 27 employees. However, Christopher Mazzei’s mother was the registered owner of Gusto on the Go, which the state of California suspended on Oct. 1, 2020.

On April 20, 2020, the couple applied for a PPP loan for Better Half Entertainment claiming they had 12 employees, did not own any other businesses and would not be applying for any other PPP loans, none of which was accurate. The couple provided the bank with false payroll records.

In 2020, the couple applied for and received eight PPP loans for three businesses: Gusto on the Go catering in San Luis Obispo, Better Half Entertainment in SLO and Better Half Entertainment in Beverly Hills.

The couple remains out on bail until their Jan. 9, 2025 sentencing.

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Imagine if our government would not just willy nilly throw money to the wind but actually have checks and balances in place to keep this from happening?

To allow this as a constant is fricking ludicrous and makes me mad as hell. No wonder we’re in the dire straits we are when it comes to inflation and the current state of our overall economy. Shameful!


27

Shameful indeed but everyone who’s blaming the government for this is totally off base. Good people don’t do this. I’ve known of this couple for several years and anyone who knows them knows that something was fishy with all the flashy cars, houses and general lifestyle they tried to live. They are all about money and the show and it finally caught up to them in the worst way. Really sad and sick.


10

Given there was several 100 million or even trillions of dollars stolen, one couple stealing around 1.5 million is a drop in the bucket. It is a start but unless there are several convictions a week it will take years/ decades to get back even a fraction of what was stolen from the taxpayers.


65

Student loan forgiveness, $25k for a new house, Covid “loans” to cover for the stupidity of outlawing working. $3k to vacate public property. Will the fools in Government ever learn?


56

Not as long as they continue to get reelected.


53

To be fair:


Student loan forgiveness. Most people, even those who approve of it, do not necessarily understand what is at work here. Most of those who qualify have already paid back the amount they borrowed, plus half again that amount, a very considerable sum, for a loan with terms they didn’t fully understand when they signed for it. The original load was usurious to begin with. They would otherwise continue to give a bank the bulk of their disposable income instead of contributing to the economy as consumers and homeowners. I fail to see how relieving them of this outright thievery is a bad thing.


Perhaps you are one of the people who likes to see the homeless camped on public property rather than housed. When in an actual address, they can again begin to participate in society in a more functional way. I fail to see how that is a bad thing, given how expensive and dangerous it is to allow them to continue to camp in inappropriate places.


The housing stipend for $$$$$ for workers is a harder one to justify, but still has a bit of logic behind it, given that most of those people are forced to contribute to things like Social Security, from which they will never collect (we benefit from that), and without their less expensive labor (I don’t know a lot of “legal” Americans who would do that work) our food would be considerably more expensive. Farms genuinely need their help. All you “right to life” Christians want to see their children in a proper house, do you not? That is what Jesus would want, after all. It is not as if they are not working and we are not benefitting.


I do not see the benefit to government “learning” to be withholding or indifferent to the problems that you would complain about bitterly if they were not addressed.


-46