Florida man faces more than prison for $3 million PPP fraud. He’ll lose citizenship

A South Florida man facing prison for his role in stealing millions from a federal COVID-19 loan program not only faces a prison term but also another consequence of his crime — loss of his naturalized citizenship and possible deportation to his native Haiti.

That punishment looms because of a wrinkle in U.S. immigration law that allows the government to revoke the citizenship of people who were engaged in crimes at the time they applied — even if they had not yet been arrested for or convicted of them.

Back in November, Joff Stenn Wroy Philossaint, 32, had admitted guilt to helping about a dozen South Florida businesses apply for $3 million in phony loans under the federal Paycheck Protection Program meant to help struggling companies pay for their employees and other overhead costs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Philossaint also admitted that the network of companies received $2 million in PPP loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration, according to court records. And he admitted that he collected a 10 percent commission fee from five other defendants named in his indictment, records show.

But another charge — whether he’d lied on a naturalization form about his criminal history while his citizenship was pending — went before a Fort Lauderdale federal court jury, which found him guilty earlier this week.

His defense attorney, Ian Goldstein, declined to comment on Thursday.

According to evidence presented on Monday, Philossaint applied to become a U.S. citizen in April 2020. While that application was pending, prosecutors said Philossaint orchestrated his COVID-19 loan scheme in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. On Dec. 15, 2020, a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officer interviewed Philossaint about his citizenship application.

During the interview, Philossaint “falsely stated” that he had never committed a crime for which he had not been arrested and that he had never made misrepresentations to receive a public benefit such as the PPP loans in the United States, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Philossaint won approval to become a naturalized U.S. citizen based on these “false representations,” the office said.

Now, Philossaint faces prison time for wire fraud and money-laundering conspiracies along with citizenship fraud at his sentencing hearing on April 19 before U.S. District Judge Rodney Smith.

Each of the two conspiracy convictions carry up to 20 years, and the citizenship violation up to 10 years. After his sentencing, Philossaint will be stripped of his citizenship, prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. Once he loses his naturalization status, Philossaint will be a convicted foreign national subject to deportation.

This story was originally published February 9, 2023 at 3:23 PM.

Jay Weaver

Miami Herald

305-376-3446

Jay Weaver writes about federal crime at the crossroads of South Florida and Latin America. Since joining the Miami Herald in 1999, he’s covered the federal courts nonstop, from Elian Gonzalez’s custody battle to Alex Rodriguez’s steroid abuse. He was part of the Herald teams that won the 2001 and 2022 Pulitzer Prizes for breaking news on Elian’s seizure by federal agents and the collapse of a Surfside condo building killing 98 people. He and three Herald colleagues were 2019 Pulitzer Prize finalists for explanatory reporting on gold smuggling between South America and Miami.