Former Stonecrest Mayor Jason Lary and his former bookkeeper have pleaded guilty to charges related to allegedly stealing COVID relief funds awarded to Stonecrest during the pandemic, officials said. ) or https:// means youve safely connected to the .gov website. The censure stemmed from remarks Mayor Lary made at the end of a council meeting on Sept. 27. Lock On October 28, 2020, for example, Clarence Boone and Lary circumvented the application process and directed more than $50,000 to a business that they knew was not conducting any legitimate operations, and Lania Boone ultimately wrote the check to disburse the funds. According to U.S. Attorney Buchanan, the charges and other information presented in court: In March 2020, the President signed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act into law in response to the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. Jason Lary was accused of stealing more than $650,000 in COVID-19 relief funds. The first mayor of Stonecrest pleaded guilty to the federal charges earlier this year. Lary resigned a day before he pleaded guilty to. Later in December 2020 and January 2021, Clarence Boone coordinated with Lary and Lania Boone to use $108,155.52 of relief funds to pay off the mortgage on Larys lakefront home in Macon, Georgia, and used more than $7,600 of relief funds to pay college tuition, a meal plan, books, and rent for Clarence Boones son. Instead, prosecutors said Lary used the money to cover his own tax liabilities and pay off the mortgage on his lake house. Federal authorities brought the mayor of Stonecrest to court alleging he stole hundreds of thousands of dollars in COVID-19 relief granted to the city. Main Office: ", Former Stonecrest Mayor Jason Lary is met by FOX 5 I-Team Reporter Randy Travis as he walks into the federal courthouse in Atlanta to enter a guilty plea to stealing CARES Act money on Jan. 5, 2022. This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Boone was the companys bookkeeper and wrote multiple checks to disburse the funds, records show. Suite 600 It's been five years since a Carroll County man mysteriously disappeared from his home. His sentencing hearing has been set for May 2. The potential stakes are high for offenders who break new guidelines. That decision will be made at a later date. Stonecrest received $6.2 million in Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act funds, and the two are accused of taking some of the funds for themselves. The FBI and prosecutors found that $108,000 of relief funds were used to pay off the mortgage on a lakefront home owned by Lary, while another $7,600 was used to pay college tuition and rent for Boones son. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. "I came back too early from my second round with cancer. (Art by Richard Miller). Instead of being a trustworthy steward of CARES Act funding, Clarence Boone and his co-conspirators schemed to misappropriate those funds to enrich themselves at the expense of those less fortunate. A lock ( "Larys guilty plea was the first in righting the wrongs committed against the people of Stonecrest, who were wrongfully deprived of hundreds of thousands of dollars intended to provide COVID-19 relief," said U.S. Attorney Kurt R. Erskine. However, federal authorities said Lary worked behind the scenes with an organization known as Municipal Resource Partners Corporation, Inc. ("MRPC") to disburse the relief funds. Lary asked potential recipients to kickback 25% of their grant to other companies for "marketing" purposes. According to U.S. Attorney Buchanan, the charges and other information presented in court: In March 2020, the President signed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act into law in response to the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. I will show you my hairy behind next time it happens and that's the only warning I'm going to give with this.". A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. ATLANTA - Jason Lary, the former mayor of Stonecrest, and Lania Boone, a bookkeeper for the entity that administered COVID-19 relief funds awarded to Stonecrest, have pleaded guilty to. Those companies were all connected to Lary. Lary previously denied the accusations of fraud. Instead, $108,000 dollars were transferred to pay off the mortgage on a lakefront propertyowned by the former mayor. 2022-02-12 - By Zachary Hansen zachary.hansen@ajc.com. Charles Johnson, Sr., has pleaded guilty for not paying $1.4 million in payroll taxes and for failure to pay employment taxes. Jason Lary, 60, of Stonecrest, Georgia, has been sentenced to four years and nine months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release. Earlier this year, Lary pleaded guilty to one count each of wire fraud, conspiracy and federal program theft for his role in stealing more than $650,000. Briefs: 11Alives news director goes to Gray; Honey Boo Boos boyfriend arrested; Marlon Woman accused of killing ill husband released from jail, Class 7A: Semifinal coverage from Georgia State, DeKalb volunteers to plant 150 trees during March, Decatur hosts second community meeting on March 2, Atlantas Carter Center preps for future without founder, Photography club captures hope during pandemic, March food and drink events to check out in metro Atlanta. He's been with the newspaper since 2018 and enjoys diving into complex stories that affect people's lives. His sentencing is set for May 2. Lary resigned a day before he pleaded guilty to concocting a fraud scheme to steal more than $650,000 in federal pandemic relief funds. The 60-year-old Lary pleaded guilty in January to fraud and theft charges. 100 people involved in a total of $26 million in CARES Act fraud. For further information please contact the U.S. Attorneys Public Affairs Office at USAGAN.PressEmails@usdoj.gov or (404) 581-6016. Attorneys for the Northern District of Georgia, Stonecrests former Senior Economic Development Manager pleads guilty to theft of COVID-19 relief funds, https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form, CEO of Atlanta engineering firm pleads guilty to failing to pay payroll taxes, Arizona man pleads guilty to extorting Georgia Tech, Georgia woman charged with stealing over $450,000 in government and retirement benefits, Stonecrests Former Senior Economic Development Manager Pleads Guilty To Theft of COVID 19 Relief Funds. Jason Lary, whose resignation went into effect at 10 a.m. Wednesday, pleaded guilty to three counts involving wire fraud, theft of government funds and conspiracy. For more information on the Departments response to the pandemic, please visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus. The qualification period will take place roughly a month before the election date, and it must end 25 days before the election takes place. This station is part of Cox Media Group Television. The first is verse 22, "The stone rejected by the builders has become the corner-stone". Cobbles term is set to expire in 2026, so another special election will be necessary. U.S. District Judge Thomas W. Thrash sentenced Stonecrest ex-mayor Jason Lary to 57 months in federal prison and ordered him to pay nearly $120,000 in restitution. Yet Lary and others asked that these contributions be given not to Stonecrest, but to entities called Visit Us, Inc. and Battleground Media, LLC. Clarence Boone, 60, of Decatur, Georgia, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit federal program theft and is scheduled to be sentenced on March 13, 2023. We have no response about the Mayors resignation, city officials said. Main Office: This sentencing holds Lary accountable for abusing his position of trust and blatant disrespect for the law.. Around the same time, Lary directed approximately $7,600 in stolen relief funds to be used for Boones sons college tuition and rent. Lary directed $7,600 of the federal relief dollars to pay Boones sons college tuition and rent. The people of Stonecrest deserved better, and corrupt officials can expect severe consequences for using their offices to commit crimes., It is extremely disheartening when an elected official, someone sworn to protect the community they serve, violates that oath by stealing relief funds intended to aid their community, said Keri Farley, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta. Lary was supposed to be in office until the end of 2023. 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In one case, federal investigators alleged that Lary gave a church $150,000 under the condition that they would give a third of the money to a company called Real Estate Management Consultants LLC, which Lary controlled. I let us down, he told the court, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. An official website of the United States government. U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Georgia, Former U.S. The City Council voted Monday to set the election date, determine qualifying information and formally ask ask the DeKalb County Board of Registrations and Elections to run the election. Now, the sheriff's office is hoping to reignite the search on this cold case. Lania Boone, 60, pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge for her role in a scheme to steal federal pandemic relief funds. Ronald Bell, who conspired to extort money from Georgia Institute of Technology, has pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to commit extortion. U.S. District Judge Thomas W. Thrash sentenced Stonecrest ex-mayor Jason Lary to 57 months in federal prison and ordered him to pay nearly $120,000 in restitution. Former Stonecrest mayor Jason Lary is asking for a lighter sentence than he faces after pleading guilty to allegedly stealing COVID relief funds awarded to the city during the pandemic. Jason Lary, the former mayor of Stonecrest, pleaded guilty, according to a news release. The people of Stonecrest deserved better, and corrupt officials can expect severe consequences for using their offices to commit crimes.. 2: Person of Interest. The plan provided $1 million to the Stonecrest Cares Program for mask distribution, COVID-19 education and testing, and other purposes. The rescue team said the man was buried up to his neck in soil. Lary was arraigned in November 2021, accused of personally profiting from COVID-19 relief money. Federal prosecutors said that in addition to paying off personal debt, Lary conducted a scheme where he asked small businesses and churches to whom he allocated grants to give 25% of the money to companies connected to himself and co-conspirators. Stonecrest was required to spend the relief funds in accordance with the CARES Act. Sandra D. Smith has been arraigned on federal charges of wire fraud and theft of government funds. Boones case matches the legal process used by Jason Lary, the founding mayor of Stonecrest. A locked padlock As mayor, he took control of who received $6.2 million in CARES Act money. 75 Ted Turner Dr. SW his resignation as mayor of Stonecrest became official. He then asked the church to give $50,000 back to one of the companies included in the scheme. The judge says Lary's actions were "deplorable" and rejected a defense request for Lary to avoid prison time. The relief funds deposited into the Visit Us and Battleground Media accounts were used by Lary to benefit himself and his associates. They are purposely seeking to tear down everything I have worked to build in Stonecrest. The mayor only votes in the event of a tie a rarity for a five-member City Council. 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. Under the CARES Act, the federal government distributed COVID-19 relief funds to individual Americans, federal agencies, and state and local governments, including $125 million to DeKalb County. Later, in March 2021, after learning of an investigation into the citys handling of relief funds and knowing that the business had never filed paperwork to support the grant, Clarence Boone attempted to conceal the scheme by directing the businesss owner to submit an application that contained false statements, even though the Small Business Program had already ceased operations. Richard B. Russell Federal Building Atlanta, GA 30303-3309. Assistant U.S. Attorney Trevor C. Wilmot prosecuted the case. (FOX 5). Learn about careers at Cox Media Group. Lary resigned from his post as a mayor right before filing a guilty plea to the charges, citing health reasons and three battles with cancer. As you can tell with technology, it can be immature and ridiculous, and thats fine, Lary said. Lary pleaded guilty to wire fraud, federal program theft, and conspiracy on January 5, 2022. ATLANTA - The former Mayor of Stonecrest pleaded guilty in federal court to stealing COVID-19 relief funds that were supposed to go to struggling businesses. Lary announced his resignation to the city on a Zoom call Tuesday. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution was the only news outlet at the hearing. The indictment alleges that Smith stole more than $450,000 in Social Security Administration Northern District of Georgia Lary is due in court to answer for fraud allegations. "If you don't know protocol, you better learn it with me," said Lary. Lary and others falsely claimed that the money would be each businesss contribution to Stonecrest-related marketing and advertising. Former Los Angeles City Councilmember Jose Huizar pleaded guilty Friday to charges of racketeering and tax evasion, admitting that he extorted at least $1.5 million in bribes from real estate . Jason Lary was accused of stealing more than. His sentencing is set for May 2. Boone is scheduled to be sentenced on May 12. He resigned his post on Jan. 4 and accepted a plea deal the next day for concocting the scheme. 2023 FOX Television Stations. It is extremely disheartening when an elected official, someone sworn to protect the community they serve, violates that oath by stealing relief funds intended to aid their community, said Keri Farley, special agent in charge of FBI Atlanta. . Lary also made the defendants wife, Lania Boone, the bookkeeper charged with distributing relief funds. In or about November 2020, Stonecrest published an application on its website for businesses to apply for relief funds under the Small Business Program. This sentencing holds Lary accountable for abusing his position of trust and blatant disrespect for the law.. Lary used three different methods to steal the funds Stonecrest disbursed to MRPC. Stonecrest residents that Jones talked to were outraged. The indictment alleges that Smith stole more than $450,000 in Social Security Administration Northern District of Georgia Lania Boone, a bookkeeper Lary hired for one of companies, admitted to helping the former mayor siphon CARES act money for personal use. Ronald Bell, who conspired to extort money from Georgia Institute of Technology, has pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to commit extortion. Lary previously pleaded not guilty to the charges, but his attorney, Dwight Thomas, indicated on Nov. 10 that he would take a plea deal. Zachary Hansen, a Georgia native, covers economic development and commercial real estate for the AJC. The Justice Department on Monday released President Trump's clemency order for longtime GOP operative Roger Stone showing the president not only wiped away Stone's prison sentence but also a . The details of Boones plea deal are similar to the one Lary accepted. It's been five years since a Carroll County man mysteriously disappeared from his home. ATLANTA - The former Mayor of Stonecrest pleaded guilty in federal court to stealing COVID-19 relief funds that were supposed to go to struggling businesses.
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