Massachusetts man who faked own death after getting charged with coronavirus PPP fraud pleads guilty scammer who faked his death pleads guilty
A Massachusetts man who faked his own death after he and a Rhode Island man became the first people in the country to be charged with coronavirus PPP aid fraud has pleaded guilty, the feds announced Monday.
David Staveley of Andover pleaded guilty on Monday to conspiring to commit bank fraud and failure to appear in court.
The 54-year-old man has been charged with fraudulently seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars in forgivable pandemic relief small business loans guaranteed under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
The CARES Act Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) allowed qualifying small businesses to receive loans to meet payroll costs and mortgage, rent and utility payments.
The feds on Monday said Staveley has admitted he conspired with David Butziger, 53, of Warwick, R.I., to file four fraudulent PPP loan applications with a Rhode Island bank. They falsely claimed they owned businesses with large monthly payrolls when, in fact, they did not own the businesses.
Staveley admitted that he and Sanborn filed fraudulent loan applications seeking $185,570 to pay employees at Top of the Bay restaurant in Warwick; $144,050 at Remington House Inn restaurant in Warwick; $108,777 at On The Trax restaurant in Berlin, Mass.; and $105,381 for employees at Dock Wireless, an unincorporated business.
Remington House Inn and On The Trax were closed at the time the loan applications were submitted, and they remain closed, the feds said. Staveley has no ownership interest in Top of the Bay, while Dock Wireless had no employees and no wages were ever paid by the business.
Last May, Staveley and Butziger became the first people in the nation charged with defrauding the CARES Act PPP.
Three weeks after appearing in federal court and being released to home detention with electronic monitoring, Staveley removed his electronic device and fled, the feds said. Staveley staged his suicide by leaving suicide notes with associates and in his car, which was located by the ocean in Massachusetts. The car was unlocked and his wallet was inside.
The feds determined that between May 26 and July 23, Staveley traveled to various states using false identities and stolen license plates. He was apprehended by the U.S. Marshals Service in Georgia last July 23.
Staveley is scheduled to be sentenced this August.
Butziger pleaded guilty last September to conspiracy to commit bank fraud. He is scheduled to be sentenced this June.
from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3yrWcx9
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