Albany Man Admits Stealing Nearly $1 Million in Federal Funds

ALBANY, NEW YORK – Asjid Parvez, age 37, of Albany, pled guilty today to stealing nearly $1 million in federal funds from a program that helped struggling farmers pay off their loans.

United States Attorney Carla B. Freedman and Craig L. Tremaroli, Special Agent in Charge of the Albany Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), made the announcement.

In 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act authorized the United States Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) to financially assist certain distressed borrowers who had fallen behind on repaying their federally guaranteed farm loans. Parvez was one such borrower, having defaulted on a loan that he had used to purchase a Maryland chicken farm in 2014.

In pleading guilty, Parvez admitted that in May 2023, the FSA sent him a United States Treasury check in the amount of $972,564.61. Parvez knew that he needed to use these funds to pay off the federally guaranteed farm loan on which he had defaulted. But instead, he stole the money, and used the funds to pay personal expenses and to fund real estate investments. Parvez stole the money by opening a bank account in the name of his lender, Horizon Farm Credit; depositing the Treasury check – which was jointly payable to the defendant and the lender – into that account; and then quickly transferring the Treasury funds to other accounts that he controlled.

Parvez pled guilty to one count of theft of government property. He faces up to 10 years in prison, up to 3 years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000, when United States District Judge Anne M. Nardacci sentences him on May 2, 2024. A defendant’s sentence is imposed by a judge based on the particular statute the defendant is charged with violating, the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other factors. Parvez has also agreed to pay $972,564.61 in restitution to the FSA.

Additionally, the FBI has already seized $516,974.54 traceable to the federal funds that Parvez stole, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Asset Recovery Unit has filed a civil action seeking the forfeiture of a residential property in Albany that was purchased using approximately $202,675 in stolen funds.

The FBI investigated this case, with assistance from the United States Department of Agriculture Office of Inspector General.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Barnett is prosecuting this case, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Conger is representing the United States in the asset forfeiture action.