Source: Office of United States Attorneys
SCRANTON – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that William Freeman, IV, age 45, of Tobyhanna, PA, was charged by criminal information with one count of wire fraud and one count of making and subscribing a false tax return.
According to Acting United States Attorney John C. Gurganus, over a multi-year period between 2020 and 2021, Freeman submitted at least 10 applications seeking pandemic stimulus funds through both the Economic Injury and Disaster Loan (EIDL) program, as well as the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) on behalf of several entities under his control, including, Second Haven Services for Youth, Inc., Phoenix Behavioral Health Network, LLC, Pocono Wing Hut, LLC, and Legacy Group Real Estate Company. The applications submitted by Freeman were filed on behalf of corporate entities that did not, in fact, have actual business operations, and that bore false employee headcount information, fabricated gross revenues, and costs of goods sold. Freeman additionally made material misrepresentations on these applications about his criminal history, representing that he had none when, in fact, he did. Freeman obtained over $300,000 dollars in stimulus funds through filing the fraudulent applications, which he spent on unapproved personal expenses and which was never repaid.
Additionally, and in support of that fraud, Freeman filed a falsified Form 1040 and a falsified W-3 in 2020 for the 2019 tax year claiming thousands of dollars in taxes that were withheld and paid over to the IRS which never happened. In addition to his failure to pay over those taxes, he also attempted to obtain thousands of dollars of tax refund money. Mr. Freeman did this for the purpose of creating a filed tax return in an attempt to obtain additional stimulus funds.
The case is being investigated by the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigations and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Luisa Honora Berti.
“IRS Criminal Investigation agents will continue to be on the front lines to fight fraud.” Stated Yury Kruty, Special Agent in Charge, IRS-Criminal Investigation, Philadelphia Field Office.
The maximum penalty under federal law for this offense is up to 23 years of imprisonment, a term of supervised release following imprisonment, and a fine. A sentence following a finding of guilt is imposed by the Judge after consideration of the applicable federal sentencing statutes and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines.
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.
Indictments and Criminal Informations are only allegations. All persons charged are presumed to be innocent unless and until found guilty in court.
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