Story by Ethan
On November 19th, 2025, the arrest of Marylin Peter, age 54, and Mark Anthony, age 58 was announced by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg Jr.. Marylin Peter was charged with first and second-degree Grand Larceny, and first-degree Scheme to Defraud. Both defendants are indicted for allegedly stealing $1.7 million from the U.S. Business Administration (SBA) and $500,000 from Empire State Development (ESD) through fraudulent applications for Covid-19 relief. The arrest and charges against Marylin Peter and Mark Anthony were a result of an investigation handled by the New York State Inspector General’s Office, Senior Investigator Ilene Gates, Investigative Counsel Ray Gdula, United States Small Business Administration, New York State Urban Development Corporation d/b/a Empire State Development, and B.S.D. Capital Inc. d/b/a Lendistry.
According to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, both defendants allegedly stole and used the identity of three victims to submit fraudulent loan applications to 11 unique companies. Marylin Peter and Mark Anthony allegedly used the victims’ identities to communicate with the SBA and ESD grand program administrator, Lendistry, through phone and email communication with complete access and control to the victims’ email accounts. It’s also alleged that between the dates of May 5th, 2020, to August 10th, 2021, both defendants had illegally obtained $1,730,100 through Covid-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL). Marylin Peter and Mark Anthony secured advanced loans for nine different companies by allegedly submitting false reports for employee numbers, gross revenue, and cost of sold goods when applying for the EIDL funds. From August 10th, 2021, to December 27th, 2022, both defendants requested EIDL loan increases for the nine companies, however the SBA flagged the requests for loan fraud and since then Marylin Peter and Mark Anthony had defaulted on these loans.
On October 21st, 2025, the defendants allegedly transferred $1.2 million to Fidelity National Title Insurance in order to acquire Hayes Court in Jackson Heights, New York, through a real estate transaction. Most of the funds used in this deal were from EIDL and ESD grants and loans Marylin Peter and Mark Anthony had previously received.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office stated that the charges against Marylin Peter and Mark Anthony are merely accusations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
