Buckle your seatbelt, folks. Today’s fraud case is a doozy. Michael C. Moller, 42 of Middletown, R.I. not only committed four armed bank robberies while on home confinement for a previous tax fraud conviction, but he also stole more than $4.7 million in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans. (He’s quite the enterprising fraudster.)
While Moller was on federal supervised release after completing his term of incarceration for committing four bank robberies, he was quite the busy bee. According to court documents, he submitted 11 fake PPP loan applications in his own name and in the names of his father and his girlfriend’s son and brother. (He was seeking $4,725,742, but only received $599,251.)
It appears that Moller had quite the criminal past, even before the tax fraud and bank robberies. He was previously convicted nine times in state courts in Rhode Island and Massachusetts for larceny and obtaining money under false pretenses. (“Repeat offender” doesn’t quite describe this criminal.)
While awaiting sentencing for stealing funds from the PPP, which was designed to assist small businesses struggling to survive because of the pandemic, Moller kept himself occupied by defrauding two of his fellow inmates at the Wyatt Detention Center. He persuaded these two very unlucky men to hand over thousands of dollars in return for the services of a purported lawyer who would help them with their criminal and immigration cases. (It stands to reason that no one should ever trust another prisoner to help you get out of prison. They would have had better success using spoons to dig their way out.)
Moller probably didn’t realize that the FBI monitored calls from within the detention center where he impersonated an attorney named “Sam.” The prisoner-in-disguise persuaded his victims to hand over the cash. The wife of one of the inmates delivered $5,000 to Moller’s girlfriend and a friend of the other inmate delivered $12,000 in cash. One of the victims was told by Moller to “pack his belongings” because bail had been posted. (Gullible, to say the least.)
What happened to the $17,000 in cash, you ask? Recorded conversations reveal that the cash was spent on marijuana, gambling and on Moller’s commissary account at the Wyatt Detention Center. So, it’s no surprise that Moller received a sentence of 82 months and one day in federal prison followed by 3 years of supervised release. And he must also pay the banks a total of $599,251 in restitution. (Something tells me that this punishment may not keep him from coming up with another scheme.)
Today’s Fraud of the Day comes from a Department of Justice press release, “Rhode Island Man Who Sought $4.7 Million in COVID Relief Loans Sentenced for Defrauding CARES Act Paycheck Protection Program,” dated October 12, 2021.
PROVIDENCE – For the second time in one week, a defendant has been sentenced in U.S. District Court in Providence, RI, to a significant term of incarceration in federal prison for defrauding or attempting to defraud the Paycheck Protection Program administered by the Small Business Administration (SBA) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, announced Acting United States Attorney Richard B. Myrus.
Today, Michael C. Moller, 42, a Middletown, R.I., man previously convicted and sentenced to 108 months in federal prison for committing four armed bank robberies while on home confinement for an even earlier tax fraud conviction, was sentenced to 82 months and one day in federal prison for fraudulently seeking more than $4.7 million in Paycheck Protection Program loans and violating the terms of his term of federal supervised release.
