A Boise man pleaded guilty for using COVID-19 relief funds for personal expenditures and for falsifying records

Summary

A U.S. Attorney’s Office press release for Idaho, published June 2, 2022, headed Former Congressional Candidate Pleads Guilty to Covid-19 Relief Fraud and Falsification of Records. It states that Nicholas Jones of Boise, Idaho, a small business owner, pleaded guilty to wire fraud and falsification of records. According to court documents, Jones applied for and received COVID-19 relief funds, including through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL), totaling $753,600, and used a significant portion for personal expenses. The release states that a report to the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) omitted in-kind contributions in the form of employee time, and that the maximum is 20 years in prison on each count.

Summary drafted by a model from the document's text below and checked by script against that text before publication. It is a navigation aid, not a reading of what the document proves. Where AI is used

Full text

Boise – A Boise man pleaded guilty for using COVID-19 relief funds for personal expenditures and for falsifying records to conceal thousands of dollars of in-kind contributions by employees in a report to the Federal Elections Commission (FEC).
According to court documents, in 2020, Nicholas Jones, 36, of Boise, Idaho, a small business owner, applied for and received COVID-19 relief funds, including through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL), totaling $753,600. Despite certifying that these funds would only be used for business-related expenditures, Jones used a significant portion of the funds for personal expenses, including car payments, life insurance policies, and political advertisements.
In 2020, Jones ran as a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives. Jones told employees of his small business that they could continue to be paid their normal wages if they worked on his congressional campaign. Employees reported to work on behalf of Jones’s congressional campaign and were paid thousands of dollars in wages through Jones’s small business including, in part, with funds Jones had received as part of a PPP loan. After losing the primary election, Jones caused his campaign committee to file a campaign finance report with the FEC, which omitted any in-kind contributions from any entity or individual other than Jones, including the thousands of dollars of in-kind contributions to his campaign in the form of employee time and work.
Jones pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court of Idaho to wire fraud and falsification of records. Jones will be sentenced at a later date. Jones faces a maximum total 20 years in prison on each count. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
U.S. Attorney Rafael M. Gonzalez Jr., of the District of Idaho made the announcement and commended the investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which led to the charges.
###

File and source

File

2022-06-02_former-congressional-candidate-pleads-guilty-to-covid-19-relief-fraud-an_a2717852.md.txt

Size

2,041 bytes

SHA-256

aa2442a8c53b0150f945040dec88836a269118ae55928670e4c19fabaaefd22a

Our copy

2022-06-02_former-congressional-candidate-pleads-guilty-to-covid-19-relief-fraud-an_a2717852.md.txt

Original

www.justice.gov