National Roundup

Washington
Tech exec pleads guilty to wire fraud, money laundering
SEATTLE (AP) — A Washington state tech executive has pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering after obtaining $5.5 million in Paycheck Protection Program loans and laundering the proceeds, federal prosecutors said.

Mukund Mohan of Clyde Hill was charged in July 2020 and agreed to a plea deal on Monday, Acting U.S. Attorney Tessa Gorman said in a statement. He's scheduled to be sentenced on July 20.

Mohan submitted at least eight fake PPP loan applications for six different companies to federally insured financial institutions, according to the plea agreement and court records. He made false and misleading statements about the companies to support the fake applications.

In one case, he said his company Mahenjo Inc. had dozens of employees and paid millions of dollars in employee wages and payroll taxes in 2019 when actually he purchased the company in 2020, and had no workers or business activity.

Under the terms of the plea agreement, prosecutors will recommend the low end of the federal sentencing guidelines range, Gorman said. Both prosecution and defense will recommend that Mohan pay a $100,000 fine in addition to restitution.

Wire fraud is punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Money laundering is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

New Jersey
Prosecutors: Welfare worker accessed cards, stole thousands
JERSEY CITY, N.J. (AP) — A Hudson County welfare office employee fraudulently accessed benefit cards issued to residents to make ATM cash withdrawals of several thousand dollars, authorities said Tuesday.

Herbert Thomas, 55, of Jersey City, faces 10 theft counts, according to the county prosecutor's office. He was arrested Monday and it wasn't known if he's retained an attorney. He's due to make his initial court appearance April 6.

The thefts occurred between Sept. 28, 2020 and Feb. 19 of this year. Authorities did not say how or why Thomas accessed the cards or what he did with the money. They also did not disclose how much money was taken overall.

The investigation into the thefts is ongoing.

Oregon
Man pleads guilty in $12M grass seed fraud schemes
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A former manager of a Washington-based company that produced and sold grass seed and turfgrass to independent Oregon growers has admitted to mislabeling, pyramid and real estate investment schemes that defrauded customers and netted him more than $12 million.

Christopher Claypool, of Spokane, Washington pleaded guilty Monday to conspiring to commit wire fraud and money laundering during his first appearance in federal court in Portland, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported.

Prosecutors will seek a four-year prison term for the 52-year-old if he follows the conditions of his pre-sentencing release, including paying $8.3 million in restitution plus unpaid taxes.

Prosecutors said the various schemes ran from about 2015 through August 2019. Claypool had worked for Jacklin Seed Co. at its headquarters in Liberty Lake, Washington.

Federal prosecutors said Claypool's schemes include packaging seed varieties with false and misleading labels, embezzling more than $12 million while posing as a foreign sales partner and conspiring with a travel agency in Spokane to inflate costs of his international travel.

Claypool briefly apologized in court but was directed to withhold additional comment until sentencing. He'll remain out of custody until sentencing but was ordered to surrender his passport.

Florida
Assistant principal accused in homecoming court vote fraud
PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) — An assistant principal at an elementary school is accused of accessing the school district's internal system to cast fraudulent votes for her daughter who was elected homecoming queen at her high school, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said.

On Monday, agents arrested Laura Rose Carroll, 50, and her 17-year-old daughter on multiple charges stemming from the October homecoming vote at Tate High School in Pensacola.

The investigation began in November when the Escambia County School District reported unauthorized access into hundreds of student accounts, according to a news release from the agency.

Investigators found that in October, hundreds of votes for the school's homecoming court were flagged as fraudulent, the news release said. There were 117 votes from the same IP address within a short period of time, the investigation found.

That's when investigators found evidence of unauthorized access to the system linked to Carroll's cellphone and computers at her home. The were 246 votes cast for homecoming court from those devices. Carroll is an assistant principal at Bellview Elementary School in Pensacola.

Multiple Tate students told investigators the daughter described using her mother's system access, or of watching her mother access records, for years, the report said. Investigators learned that since August 2019, Carroll's account accessed 372 high school records and 339 of those were Tate students.

Investigators said Carroll had district level access of the school board's program.

System users are required to change their password every 45 days, and Carroll's annual training for the "Staff Responsible Use of Guidelines for Technology" was up to date, the agency said.

Carroll was booked into the Escambia County Jail and bond was set at $8,500, the agency said. It was not immediately known whether Carroll and her daughter are represented by a lawyer.

Her daughter was taken into custody and transferred to the Escambia Regional Juvenile Detention Center. The case has been turned over to the state attorney's office in Escambia County.

Escambia County School District Superintendent Tim Smith told the News Journal that Carroll has been suspended from her job. He declined further comment.

Her daughter has been expelled from Tate High School, agents said.

Each are charged with offenses against users of computers, computer systems, computer networks and electronic devices; unlawful use of a two-way communications device; criminal use of personally identifiable information and conspiracy to commit those offenses.