Former Church Pastor Sentenced to Two Years in Prison for Committing Pandemic Loan Fraud

Summary

A press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania published 2023-09-01, "Former Church Pastor Sentenced to Two Years in Prison for Committing Pandemic Loan Fraud". It announces that United States District Judge Gerald J. Pappert sentenced Rooldy Alexandre, 54, of Willingboro, NJ, to 24 months of incarceration and three years of supervised release, with $662,454 in restitution, after guilty pleas to two counts of wire fraud. The release states that, as pastor and only employee of a Philadelphia church, he had a Florida consultant submit a false PPP application that brought the church an inflated loan of over $260,000, then a false second-draw application for $250,000, diverting proceeds with his sister, Christella Dorval. It states that he also falsified applications for two church members and took their 25% "consultant" fees.

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Full text

PHILADELPHIA – United States Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero announced that Rooldy Alexandre, 54, of Willingboro, NJ, was sentenced to 24 months of incarceration, three years of supervised release, and restitution in the amount of $662,454 by United States District Judge Gerald J. Pappert for committing pandemic loan fraud in the name of the church for which he served as a pastor and on behalf of other members of the church.
The defendant was charged with, and pleaded guilty to, two counts of wire fraud in connection with his submission of false applications for U.S. Small Business Administration pandemic loans that are also known as Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) loans. While he served as the pastor and only employee of a Philadelphia church, the defendant was responsible for the church’s finances and controlled the church’s bank accounts. After the COVID-19 pandemic began, he first applied for a PPP loan using accurate information for the church but was not satisfied with the amount of the loan offered. He then reached out to a person in Florida who had prepared false PPP applications for others and asked that person to help him prepare a new PPP application for the church. The Florida consultant submitted false information about the church in the new application, and based on that false information, the church received an inflated loan of over $260,000. The defendant took a significant portion of the fraudulent loan proceeds for himself. He later submitted a false second-draw PPP loan application on behalf of the church and worked with his sister, Christella Dorval, charged elsewhere, to divert proceeds of the $250,000 loan to himself for personal use.
The defendant also offered to help other members of the church to apply for PPP loans. On behalf of two other members, he submitted loan applications, but he falsified information about the applicants. The defendant lied to the applicants and claimed that a fake Florida consultant had prepared their applications, and that they owed him 25% of any loan proceeds. When the applicants received the inflated loan proceeds based on the information falsely submitted by the defendant, they paid the 25% “consultant” fee, but unbeknownst to them the defendant again worked with his sister, Dorval, to divert their payments to himself for his own personal use.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Nancy E. Potts.

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