Boston Grand Prix former CFO John F. Casey to pay $2 million over wire fraud, identity theft and money laundering scheme
John F. Casey was sentenced on Tuesday at the federal court in Boston for his part in defrauding small business financing companies, the Small Business Administration and the Internal Revenue Service while he was Chief Financial Officer of the Boston Grand Prix.
The 58-year-old, formally from Ipswich, pleaded guilty to 23 counts of wire fraud, three counts of aggravated identity theft, four counts of money laundering and three counts of filing false tax returns in October.
“He has shown just a completely reckless disregard for the law,” WVCB quoted U.S. District Court Judge Allison D. Burroughs saying on Tuesday.
Burroughs sentenced him to three years of supervised release after his four-year prison term and ordered that he pay restitution of nearly $2 million.
Casey became the CFO of the Boston Grand Prix in January 2015.
The Boston Grand Prix made payments to, or on behalf of, Casey totaling approximately $308,292 in 2015 and $601,073 in 2016, which Casey failed to include in the gross income he claimed on his tax returns for those years.
Casey also owned an ice rink in Peabody from October 2013 until he sold it in June 2016. Between October 2014 and October 2016, Casey obtained over $743,000 in funds from equipment financing companies for the purchase of equipment for the ice rink. For 4 months during this time, he no longer owned the rink while applying for the funds.
In August 2016, more than two months after he sold the ice rink in Peabody, he obtained over $145,000 in small business loans for the rink business.
To secure the financing, Casey submitted false documents and information, including fake invoices for the equipment, bank records purporting to show deposits into Casey’s accounts related to the Peabody rink, inflated personal and corporate tax returns and personal financial statements falsely claiming ownership and value of various assets.
Casey orchestrated a scheme between March 2020 to May 2021 to obtain Economic Injury Disaster Loans and Paycheck Protection Program loans from the SBA and a Massachusetts Sector-Specific Relief Grant that are available under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act.
Casey submitted at least 14 loan applications to the SBA and intermediary lenders, which contained false information and stole two women’s identities and used their personal identifying information to file fraudulent applications.
Officials said he then used that money to buy a three-carat diamond ring, a six-month membership to Match.com, private school tuition, residential rent payments, living expenses, payments on personal credit card accounts, restaurant meals, car payments and luxury hotel stays.
The January notice also claimed $12,427.52 seized from one Bank of America account, $59,461.91 from another Bank of American account and all funds on deposit in a Charles Schwab account.
On February 10, the U.S. government seized a three-carat diamond ring bought by Casey using pandemic grant funds.
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