3 Long Islanders among 9 New Yorkers who admit to stealing COVID-19 relief funds

Three Long Islanders are among nine New Yorkers who have pleaded guilty to stealing thousands of dollars in state pandemic grants, the state Inspector General’s Office announced Friday.

The defendants, including two from Nassau and one from Suffolk, submitted applications on behalf of fictitious and shuttered businesses in order to steal funds meant to help small firms survive the COVID-19 pandemic, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz and New York State Inspector General Lucy Lang said in a written announcement. The investigation was conducted by Katz's office in collaboration with the inspector general's office, according to the announcement. 

The nine defendants pleaded guilty to grand larceny in the fourth degree and petit larceny in Queens Supreme Court between May 2025 and February 2026, the inspector general's office said.

The three Long Islanders who admitted taking part in the scheme are Tanvir Milon, 55, of Farmingdale; Juned Khan, 56, of Deer Park; and Nadeem Sheikh, 56, of New Hyde Park, according to the announcement and court documents provided to Newsday by the Queens District Attorney's office. The documents did not list attorneys or contact information for the defendants, but Newsday identified a lawyer for Milon. The attorney declined to comment.

In total, the nine defendants were ordered to pay nearly $1.1 million in restitution for defrauding the COVID-19 Pandemic Small Business Recovery Grant Program. The state has already received $760,000, Lang's office said.

“Exploiting disaster relief funds for personal gain is both criminal and shameful at any time, but particularly during a global health crisis,” Lang said in a statement. “New York will not stand for putting greed above the public good.”

Milon was ordered to pay $280,512 in restitution, while Khan and Sheikh were ordered to pay $70,000 and $46,208, respectively, according to court documents. 

Investigators said Milon stole $280,512 in grant funding from the state through claims for nine fraudulent businesses. They also said he ripped off the federal COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program, which offered low-interest loans from the Small Business Administration, to the tune of more than $2.5 million.

Khan used eight businesses to steal $127,300 from the state program, investigators said, and stole $72,000 from the EIDL program. Sheikh stole $96,208 in state recovery grants through two fraudulent businesses, according to court documents.

The case is part of the state’s larger effort to claw back state pandemic grants that were awarded to more than 100 small businesses and for-profit arts groups statewide that weren’t entitled to financial relief, Newsday previously reported.

Friday’s news follows a June audit by state Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli’s office that found that nearly $4.1 million in grant funds from the state’s $800 million Recovery Grant Program were erroneously awarded to 101 entities across New York. Among the entities, 17 were on Long Island.

Empire State Development, the state agency that oversaw the grant program, has said it would pursue efforts to recapture the misappropriated grant money.

The recovery program was created to help small enterprises cover the cost of wages, overhead and personal protective equipment for employees following the economic fallout of the pandemic.

Officials with ESD declined Friday to comment on the case.

The other six defendants, all residents of Queens, are Mahbub Malik, 41, of Astoria; Yousuf Md, 45, of Elmhurst; Mohammed Chowdhury, also known as Khokan Ashraf, 68, of Jackson Heights; Zakir Chowdhury, 59, and Tufail Ahmed, 50, both of Jamaica; and Mohammad Khan, 49, of Jamaica Hills, according to the announcement.

According to Katz, the defendants submitted multiple applications to the recovery program on behalf of numerous businesses. They claimed the grants were needed "to cover business expenses such as payroll, commercial rent/mortgage payments, utilities and/or supplies."

“These nine defendants admitted to stealing thousands of dollars in state funds intended to support struggling businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Katz said in a statement. “As part of their guilty pleas, the defendants are now required to make restitution.”