Mo Fayne of 'Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta' sentenced to 17 years in prison for misuse of PPP loans

Rapper Maurice "Mo" Fayne, who appeared on Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta when he was engaged to cast member Karlie Redd in 2018, has been sentenced to 17-and-a-half years behind bars for crimes including the misuse of millions of dollars in PPP loans.

The 38-year-old Fayne, who lives in Dacula, Ga., was arrested in May 2020 on charges of making false statements on his application for a loan from the Paycheck Protection Program — which was intended to stabilize the economy during the COVID-19 pandemic — as well as bank fraud and conspiracy and wire fraud related to a Ponzi scheme. Fayne went on to plead guilty — TMZ reported that he did so after cutting a deal with prosecutors to avoid even more time — and he was convicted in May 2021.

Officials said Fayne had, in April 2020, applied for $3.7 million through United Community Bank for his corporation, Flame Trucking. They money was supposed to be used to pay his employees, mortgages or other costs related to his business. 

Instead, Fayne spent it on personal expenses: $85,000 in jewelry, $40,000 for past-due child support, $136,000 for the lease of a Rolls-Royce, $65,000 in cash, $50,000 for money he owed in another legal case and $907,000 to start a new business. 

Fayne paid an additional $230,000 to people helping him to run a Ponzi scheme. According to the Justice Department, he had run the scheme from March 2013 to May 2020, taking money from people who intended to invest in his business and using it to "pay his personal debts and expenses and to fund an extravagant lifestyle for himself."

In addition to the time in federal prison, U.S. District Judge Mark H. Cohen ordered Fayne to five years of supervised release and payment of $4,465,865.55 to his victims across multiple states.