U.S. Department of Labor OIG, Sandown Man Pleads Guilty to Wire Fraud Related to the COVID-19 Pandemic (USAO D-NH 05/25/2022) (2022-06-02)
Summary
A press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, District of New Hampshire, dated May 25, 2022, announcing that George Adyns, 51, of Sandown, pleaded guilty to wire fraud in two schemes against COVID-19 assistance programs. Adyns was Chief Financial Officer of several Plaistow companies, including Enviromart and KSC Industrial, and in late March 2020 Adyns and a co-defendant directed employees to file for unemployment benefits with New Hampshire Employment Security while still working; the agency paid more than $49,000. The release states that Adyns also made false representations to lenders, including a certification that KSC Industrial was not engaged in illegal activity, to obtain a PPP and EIDL loan totaling more than $135,000. Sentencing was scheduled for August 31, 2022.
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“U.S. Department of Labor OIG, Sandown Man Pleads Guilty to Wire Fraud Related to the COVID-19 Pandemic (USAO D-NH 05/25/2022) (2022-06-02).”
Original at www.oig.dol.gov. Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/u-s-department-of-labor-oig-sandown-man-pleads-guilty-to-wire-fraud-re-4560dfa092/
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Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney’s Office
District of New Hampshire
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wednesday, May 25, 2022
Sandown Man Pleads Guilty to Wire Fraud Related to the
COVID-19 Pandemic
CONCORD - George Adyns, 51, of Sandown, pleaded guilty in federal court to wire fraud,
United States Attorney Jane E. Young announced today.
According to court documents and statements made in court, Adyns executed two schemes to
defraud government programs that were intended to provide economic assistance related to the
COVID-19 pandemic.
New Hampshire Employment Security (NHES) administers the unemployment insurance
program in New Hampshire. In March 2020, Congress passed legislation providing additional
unemployment benefits to individuals who lost their jobs because of the economic upheaval caused
by the coronavirus pandemic. At this time, Adyns was the Chief Financial Officer of several
companies located in Plaistow, including Enviromart and KSC Industrial, that were controlled by his
co-defendant. In late-March 2020, Adyns and his co-defendant directed company employees to file
for unemployment benefits with NHES while continuing to work. This caused the unemployment
system to effectively pay the employees’ salaries. As a result, NHES paid more than $49,000 in
fraudulently obtained unemployment benefits.
In response to the pandemic, Congress also passed other economic measures designed to help
small businesses, such as the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Under that program, businesses
could obtain low-interest loans to meet payroll during the first few months of the pandemic. The
SBA also opened up its Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program to businesses. Under the
program, businesses could obtain loans for working capital and normal operating expenses. Adyns
made false representations to lenders to fraudulently obtain a PPP and EIDL loan for KSC
Industrial. For example, he certified that KSC Industrial was not engaged in illegal
activity. However, when making that certification, he knew that he and his co-defendant were
fraudulently using the unemployment benefits system to pay their employees’ salaries. Through this
scheme, Adyns fraudulently obtained loans totaling more than $135,000.
Adyns is scheduled to be sentenced on August 31, 2022.
Adyns’s co-defendant has pleaded not guilty. Charges in an indictment are only
allegations. All defendants are presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a
reasonable doubt in a court of law.
The case was investigated by the U.S. Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the U.S. Labor
Department’s Office of the Inspector General, New Hampshire Employment Security and the New
Hampshire Attorney General’s Office with assistance from the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative
Service. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Matthew T. Hunter and
Special Assistant United States Attorney Alexander S. Chen.
On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task
Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with agencies across
government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. The Task Force
bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and international criminal
actors and assists agencies tasked with administering relief programs to prevent fraud by, among
other methods, augmenting and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying
resources and techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and
harnessing information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts. For more information
on the Department’s response to the pandemic, please visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus.
Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report
it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-
720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at: https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-
disaster-complaint-form.
###
Topic(s): USAO - New Hampshire
Coronavirus
Press Release Number:
Component(s): 22-06
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- Original
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