A Levant man allegedly obtained more than $300,000 in government loans intended to help businesses survive the pandemic and used it for bail on a theft charge in Florida as well as to buy exercise equipment, a telescope, a drone and two trucks.
Craig Franck, 39, was charged Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Bangor with three counts of wire fraud and one count of money laundering. He’s the second person in Maine to date to be accused of defrauding a government loan program meant to help businesses at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Franck is also accused of using the illegally obtained federal funds to pay a holistic doctor in Rockland and a veterinarian in Veazie, according to the complaint against him in federal court.
He allegedly received three loans electronically totaling $321,560 under two separate loan programs authorized by Congress early in the pandemic — the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program.
The U.S. Small Business Administration handled applications for disaster loans while banks handled applications for the Paycheck Protection Program.
Franck received the funds for two companies, CCF Acoustics LLC — which was formed in 2015 and is still active, according to the Maine secretary of state’s office — and CCF Acoustical System, which was founded in 2017 and dissolved the following year. The firms were contracted to do acoustical and ceiling work.
In his applications to the loan programs, Franck lied about how much money the companies made and how many people he employed, according to the complaint.
Franck’s attorney, Charles Hodson of Bangor, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday. The U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment. It is the practice of the office not to comment on pending cases.
Franck’s first appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge John Nivison has not been set. The U.S. attorney’s office, which is prosecuting the case, has asked that he be held without bail.
In August, Franck pleaded guilty in a Florida court to stealing between $20,000 and $100,000 in that state. He was sentenced to seven years of probation, the complaint said. Details about that crime were not available Friday.
Franck is the second person in Maine to be charged with fraudulently obtaining a Paycheck Protection Program loan, but the first to be charged with fraudulently obtaining a disaster loan.
Nathan Reardon, 43, of Skowhegan and formerly of Brewer has pleaded not guilty to five counts of bank fraud, three counts of attempted wire fraud, two counts of making false statements to a bank and one count of perjury. A trial has been tentatively set for June 7.
In a separate case, John J. Cavanaugh, Jr., 52, of Yarmouth admitted that he made false statements to the Small Business Administration in an attempt to get a disaster loan. He is set to be sentenced on that charge and an array of unrelated charges in May in federal court in Portland.
The U.S. Secret Service said in December that criminals had stolen nearly $100 billion from COVID-19 relief programs set up to help businesses and people who lost their jobs due to the pandemic.
If convicted, Franck faces up to 20 years in federal prison on the wire fraud charges and up to 10 years on the money laundering count. Each charge carries a fine of up to $250,000. Franck also could be ordered to pay restitution if convicted.