Carmine Agnello, 39, pleaded guilty to lying on applications for COVID relief and illegally receiving about $1 million in loans.
In addition to the 15 months in prison, Agnello will also have two years of supervised release.
He also has to pay $1,268,302 in restitution.
"During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the defendant shamefully lined his own pockets with government and taxpayers' dollars which he must repay as part of today's sentence," said Joseph Nocella, the US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
Between April 2020 and November 2021, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Agnello fraudulently applied for, and received, at least three loans totaling about $1.1 million, which he submitted on behalf of Crown Auto Parts & Recycling, LLC, a Queens-based business he operated.
Agnello submitted false information to the SBA about the number of employees who worked for Crown, as well as about the intended use of the loan proceeds, prosecutors said.
Instead of using the funds for Crown, Agnello diverted them for his personal use, including a $420,000 investment in a cryptocurrency business.
Prosecutors asked the judge to sentence Agnello to two and a half years in federal prison.
He will turn himself in on July 20.
(ABC News contributed to this report.)
----------
* More Long Island news
* Send us a news tip
* Download the abc7NY app for breaking news alerts
* Download our connected TV app