U.S. District Judge Lydia K. Griggsby sentenced Andra Shirone Thompson, 48, of Silver Spring, Maryland, to a year and a day for two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. According to a press release by the U.S. Attorney’s office, the defendant admitted to spending portions of fraudulent-loan proceeds on a Lamborghini and home renovations.
Per the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Maryland: Thompson pled guilty to conspiring to defraud Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act loan programs and his role in a years-long scheme to defraud commercial equipment financing companies. He was also sentenced to three years of supervised released and ordered to forfeit $847,280, and pay $813,363.01 in restitution to the victims of his schemes.
Kelly O. Hayes, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, made the announcement with Supervisory Official Matthew Galeotti, Justice Department’s Criminal Division; Executive Special Agent in Charge Kareem Carter, IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) Washington, D.C., Field Office; Jeffrey D. Pittano, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Office of Inspector General (FDIC-OIG), Mid-Atlantic Region; Special Agent in Charge Amaleka McCall-Braithwaite, Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General (SBA-OIG), Eastern Region; and Special Agent in Charge William J. DelBagno of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) – Baltimore Field Office.
According to his guilty plea, Thompson admitted to participating in a conspiracy to submit fraudulent applications for Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans on behalf of companies he controlled. The companies included Alpha Bravo Tango LLC., Senergy Consulting Group Inc., and Novus Ordo Seclorum LLC. Through the scheme, Thompson fraudulently obtained $716,375. He spent a portion of the proceeds on vehicles, including a 2014 Lamborghini Aventador, and on renovating a home in North Carolina.
Thompson also joined a conspiracy to defraud equipment financing companies by submitting fraudulent invoices that falsely showed the sale of substantial quantities of computer servers and related equipment. Thompson and his co-conspirators caused borrowers to submit fraudulent invoices to lenders to support their loan applications to purchase items. After approval, lenders deposited loan proceeds into accounts controlled by Thompson and his co-conspirators. The lenders were unaware that the sales on the invoices never occurred. Thompson and his co-conspirators typically “kicked back” a portion of the proceeds to the borrower who submitted the application and kept the rest for themselves. Thompson personally participated in three executions of this scheme, causing approximately $813,362 in fraudulently induced lending.
Additionally, the co-conspirators caused more than $60 million of fraudulently induced lending across more than 350 separate loans through this scheme. Thompson’s principal co-conspirator, Craig David Davis, 49, of Venice, California, pleaded guilty to wire fraud in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia and was sentenced earlier this month to 93 months incarceration.
Financial assistance offered through the CARES Act included forgivable loans to small businesses for job retention and other expenses, through the PPP, administered through the Small Business Administration (SBA). The SBA also offered an EIDL and/or an EIDL advance to help businesses meet their financial obligations.
The District of Maryland Strike Force is one of five strike forces established throughout the United States by the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute COVID-19 fraud, including fraud relating to the CARES Act. The CARES Act was designed to provide emergency financial assistance to Americans suffering the economic effects caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The strike forces focus on large-scale, multi-state pandemic relief fraud perpetrated by criminal organizations and transnational actors. The strike forces are interagency law enforcement efforts, using prosecutor-led and data analyst-driven teams designed to identify and bring to justice those who stole pandemic relief funds.