South Florida campaign consultant pleads guilty to COVID relief fraud charges

Omar Smith, a 42-year-old Royal Palm Beach man who has worked as a political consultant on South Florida campaigns, pleaded guilty Friday to lying on a loan application for COVID relief funds and fraudulently receiving over $200,000 from the application.

Smith previously worked as a consultant for former Broward County Mayor Dale Holness. Holness, who is currently a Democratic candidate for Florida’s 20th Congressional District, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel in May that Smith no longer worked with him.

In June 2020, Smith applied for a $212,500 Paycheck Protection Program loan for his company, A Star For I, Inc., which he claimed in the application and in fraudulent documents had 30 employees and paid an average of $85,000 in monthly payroll, federal prosecutors said. Smith’s company had no employees or payroll.

Between 2019 and 2021, Holness’ campaign paid more than $60,000 to Smith and his two companies, A Star For I and Flyer Smith, for consulting, printing and IT work, Holness’ campaign treasurer’s reports say.

Once a bank in Utah approved Smith’s application, he received hundreds of thousands of dollars in his company bank account and attempted to create a paper trail that made it seem he had employees and was spending the money legitimately, prosecutors said. He wrote checks to people who did little or no work for his company.

Had the case gone to trial, some of those who received checks would have testified that they were paid in July or August 2020 and were asked by Smith or a co-conspirator to “work” for Smith, according to a federal court document filed Friday.

Smith agreed to pay 20% of the PPP loan he received to a co-conspirator who would help him get the loan, court records say. A co-conspirator, who is not named in the court records, prepared an IRS Form 941 for the company’s first quarter in 2019 as part of the application.

The FBI found in May 2021 that all of the loan money and accrued interest had been repaid, court records say.

After pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and wire fraud, Smith could face up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine, prosecutors said. His sentencing date has not been announced.