Source: Office of United States Attorneys
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The former CEO of a Birmingham IT company has been charged with wire fraud, money laundering, and bankruptcy fraud in connection with schemes to defraud his customers and a Covid-19 program, announced U.S. Attorney Prim F. Escalona and U.S. Secret Service Special Agent in Charge Patrick Davis.
A nineteen-count indictment filed in United States District Court charges Thomas Aaron Kane, 44, with twelve counts of wire fraud related to a scheme to defraud customers, five counts of wire fraud related to a scheme to commit Covid-19 program fraud, one count of money laundering, and one count of bankruptcy fraud.
According to the indictment, Kane was the owner and CEO of Keep Information Technology Simple, LLC and later Keepitsimple.us LLC, both of which provided IT services and support for businesses, particularly businesses in the healthcare industry. The indictment brings four different types of charges against Kane. First, the indictment alleges that between at least July 2017 and December 2021, Kane devised a scheme to defraud his customers. Kane’s customers would place a credit card or banking information on file to pay for a monthly service fee and any authorized expenses. However, Kane began using his customer’s credit cards and banking information to make unauthorized charges. When confronted about these charges, Kane would make up an excuse—such as claiming that there had been an accounting error. Kane would also often create false invoices that he would send to a customer. The indictment lists twelve different examples of these unauthorized charges.
Second, the indictment alleges that between April 2020 and May 2021, Kane engaged in a scheme to receive unauthorized funds under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) from the Small Business Administration. Kane made false representations to obtain three PPP loans totaling more than $625,000 . Additionally, Kane attempted to receive two more PPP loans in the name of his second business, Keepitsimple.us, totaling more than $450,000. Kane made additional false representations in support of these two loan applications and submitted false tax documents with his applications to try and get them approved.
Third, the indictment charges Kane with money laundering based on an unlawful monetary transaction exceeding $10,000. More specifically, Kane used $150,000 in PPP funds to repay a prior victim of his unauthorized-charges scheme.
Fourth, the indictment alleges that Kane committed bankruptcy fraud when he withdrew a cashier’s check in the amount of $20,941.66 from a Keepitsimple.us bank account and deposited these funds into a personal bank account, even though these funds constituted property of the Keepitsimple.us bankruptcy estate and were funds that he was not allowed to use.
The maximum penalty for wire fraud is twenty years in prison. The maximum penalty for money laundering is ten years in prison. The maximum penalty for bankruptcy fraud is five years in prison.
The United States Secret Service investigated the case with assistance from the Trussville Police Department. Assistant United States Attorney Ryan S. Rummage is prosecuting the case.
An indictment contains only charges. A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.