FALLS CHURCH, VA — A Falls Church man pleaded guilty in federal court on Tuesday to conspiring with his brothers and their friends to fraudulently obtain more than $3 million in COVID-19 relief loans from the federal government, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Fouzi Darakhshan, 36, conspired with the others to submit falsified loan applications in order to obtain Paycheck Protection Program loans through banks and Economic Injury Disaster Loans through the Small Business Administration, according to court documents. They submitted at least 63 loan applications, of which 17 were approved.

Senior U.S. District Judge Claude M. Hilton accepted Darakhshan’s plea on Tuesday.

Darakhshan and the other defendants used multiple shell entities they controlled to apply for PPPs and EIDLs and falsified IRS tax forms submitted to lenders, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.

They used a group WhatsApp chat devoted to executing the fraud scheme, openly discussing falsifying documents and inflating the numbers of employees, company revenues, and payroll figures in order to induce lenders to make the loans, the prosecutors alleged.

Foad Darakhshan, 46, of McLean; Haleh Farshi, 44, of Ashburn; Farough Darakhshan, 39, of Great Falls; Shoughi Darakhshan, 30, of McLean; and Marcus Gharib, 29, of Tysons previously pleaded guilty for their roles in the conspiracy, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The defendants are scheduled to be sentenced starting in July and ending in September, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. They face up to 5 years in prison, full restitution and forfeiture.

The U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria worked with the FBI's Washington Field Office Criminal Division and Amaleka McCall-Brathwaite, eastern region special agent in charge of the Small Business Administration's Office of Inspector General, on the cas