New Hampshire
Former United Way worker convicted of taking $6.7M from nonprofit
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A man who worked for United Way in Massachusetts was convicted in federal court of taking $6.7 million from the nonprofit through an information technology company that he secretly owned.
Imran Alrai, 59, was convicted Wednesday in Concord, New Hampshire, of 12 counts of wire fraud and six counts of money laundering. He is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 17, 2025.
Alrai had pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Prosecutors said that between 2012 and June 2018, Alrai, an IT professional at United Way, obtained the payments for IT services provided by an independent outside contractor. They said Alrai misrepresented facts about the contractor and concealed that he owned and controlled the business.
For the next five years, while serving as United Way’s Vice President for IT Services, Alrai steered additional IT work to his company, prosecutors said. They said he routinely sent emails with attached invoices from a fictitious person to himself at United Way.
“The United Way lost millions to the defendant — we hope the jury’s verdicts in this case is a step forward for their community,” U.S. Attorney Jane Young of New Hampshire said in a statement.
Alrai’s attorney, Robert Sheketoff, had called for an acquittal. When asked via email Thursday whether he was considering an appeal, Sheketoff said yes.
This was a retrial for Alrai. He was convicted of wire fraud and money laundering charges in 2019, but the judge later threw out the verdict, saying that prosecutors turned over evidence that they had not produced before the trial.
Washington
Funeral home owner pleads guilty to assaulting police and journalists during Jan. 6 riot
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Long Island funeral home owner pleaded guilty on Thursday to spraying wasp killer at police officers and assaulting two journalists, including an Associated Press photographer, during a mob’s riot at the U.S. Capitol nearly four years ago.
Peter Moloney, 60, of Bayport, New York, is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 11 by U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols. Moloney answered the judge’s routine questions as he pleaded guilty to two assault charges stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, siege at the Capitol.
Defense attorney Edward Heilig said his client takes “full responsibility” for his conduct on Jan. 6.
“He deeply regrets his actions on that day,” Heilig said after the hearing.
Moloney appears to have come to the Capitol “prepared for violence,” equipped with protective eyewear, a helmet and a can of insecticide, according to an FBI agent’s affidavit. Video shows him spraying the insecticide at officers, the agent wrote.
Video also captured Peter Moloney participating in an attack on an AP photographer who was documenting the Capitol riot. Moloney grabbed the AP photographer’s camera and pulled, causing the photographer to stumble down the stairs, the affidavit says. Moloney was then seen “punching and shoving” the photographer before other rioters pushed the photographer over a wall, the agent wrote.
Moloney also approached another journalist, grabbed his camera and yanked it, causing that journalist to stumble down stairs and damaging his camera, according to a court filing accompanying Moloney’s plea agreement.
Moloney pleaded guilty to a felony assault charge, punishable by a maximum prison sentence of eight years, for spraying wasp killer at four Metropolitan Police Department officers. For assaulting the journalist whose camera was damaged, he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor that carries a maximum prison sentence of one year. He also admitted that he assaulted the AP photographer.
Moloney, co-owner of Moloney Family Funeral Homes, was arrested in June 2023. His brother and co-owner, Dan Moloney, said in a statement after his brother’s arrest that the “alleged actions taken by an individual on his own time are in no way reflective of the core values” of their business, “which is dedicated to earning and maintaining the trust of all members of the community of every race, religion and nationality.”
Heilig said Peter Moloney has since left the family’s business.
More than 1,500 people have been charged with Jan. 6-related federal crimes. Over 950 of them have pleaded guilty. More than 200 others have been convicted by judges or juries after trials.
New Hampshire
Ex-state senator charged with theft by deception in connection to pandemic aid
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A former New Hampshire state senator accused last year of fraudulently obtaining federal COVID-19 loans and spending the money on luxury cars was charged this week with stealing separate state pandemic relief funds.
Republican Andy Sanborn, of Bedford, was charged with theft by deception, a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison, the attorney general’s office said Wednesday. According to prosecutors, he misrepresented the revenue from his Concord Casino business to receive $188,000 more than he should have from the state’s “Main Street Relief Fund” in 2020.
The charges come 13 months after state investigators said Sanborn fraudulently obtained nearly $900,000 from the federal Small Business Administration in 2021 and 2022 and spent more than $260,000 of it on race cars. Casinos and charitable gaming facilities weren’t eligible for such loans, but Sanborn omitted his business name, “Concord Casino,” from his application and listed his primary business activity as “miscellaneous services,” officials said.
Federal authorities were notified but haven’t brought charges. The allegations were enough, however, for the state to shut down the casino in December and order Sanborn to sell it. He has since sued the attorney general’s office, and his lawyers accuse the state of trying to thwart potential sales.
In a statement Wednesday, Sanborn’s lawyers called his arrest “an eleventh hour attempt to sabotage a sale.”
“We are disappointed but not surprised,” they said in a statement released by Attorney Mark Knights. “And we remain confident that the New Hampshire judiciary will continue to do justice and hold the AG accountable.”
Sanborn served four terms in the state Senate before unsuccessfully running for Congress in 2018.
Former United Way worker convicted of taking $6.7M from nonprofit
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A man who worked for United Way in Massachusetts was convicted in federal court of taking $6.7 million from the nonprofit through an information technology company that he secretly owned.
Imran Alrai, 59, was convicted Wednesday in Concord, New Hampshire, of 12 counts of wire fraud and six counts of money laundering. He is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 17, 2025.
Alrai had pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Prosecutors said that between 2012 and June 2018, Alrai, an IT professional at United Way, obtained the payments for IT services provided by an independent outside contractor. They said Alrai misrepresented facts about the contractor and concealed that he owned and controlled the business.
For the next five years, while serving as United Way’s Vice President for IT Services, Alrai steered additional IT work to his company, prosecutors said. They said he routinely sent emails with attached invoices from a fictitious person to himself at United Way.
“The United Way lost millions to the defendant — we hope the jury’s verdicts in this case is a step forward for their community,” U.S. Attorney Jane Young of New Hampshire said in a statement.
Alrai’s attorney, Robert Sheketoff, had called for an acquittal. When asked via email Thursday whether he was considering an appeal, Sheketoff said yes.
This was a retrial for Alrai. He was convicted of wire fraud and money laundering charges in 2019, but the judge later threw out the verdict, saying that prosecutors turned over evidence that they had not produced before the trial.
Washington
Funeral home owner pleads guilty to assaulting police and journalists during Jan. 6 riot
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Long Island funeral home owner pleaded guilty on Thursday to spraying wasp killer at police officers and assaulting two journalists, including an Associated Press photographer, during a mob’s riot at the U.S. Capitol nearly four years ago.
Peter Moloney, 60, of Bayport, New York, is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 11 by U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols. Moloney answered the judge’s routine questions as he pleaded guilty to two assault charges stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, siege at the Capitol.
Defense attorney Edward Heilig said his client takes “full responsibility” for his conduct on Jan. 6.
“He deeply regrets his actions on that day,” Heilig said after the hearing.
Moloney appears to have come to the Capitol “prepared for violence,” equipped with protective eyewear, a helmet and a can of insecticide, according to an FBI agent’s affidavit. Video shows him spraying the insecticide at officers, the agent wrote.
Video also captured Peter Moloney participating in an attack on an AP photographer who was documenting the Capitol riot. Moloney grabbed the AP photographer’s camera and pulled, causing the photographer to stumble down the stairs, the affidavit says. Moloney was then seen “punching and shoving” the photographer before other rioters pushed the photographer over a wall, the agent wrote.
Moloney also approached another journalist, grabbed his camera and yanked it, causing that journalist to stumble down stairs and damaging his camera, according to a court filing accompanying Moloney’s plea agreement.
Moloney pleaded guilty to a felony assault charge, punishable by a maximum prison sentence of eight years, for spraying wasp killer at four Metropolitan Police Department officers. For assaulting the journalist whose camera was damaged, he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor that carries a maximum prison sentence of one year. He also admitted that he assaulted the AP photographer.
Moloney, co-owner of Moloney Family Funeral Homes, was arrested in June 2023. His brother and co-owner, Dan Moloney, said in a statement after his brother’s arrest that the “alleged actions taken by an individual on his own time are in no way reflective of the core values” of their business, “which is dedicated to earning and maintaining the trust of all members of the community of every race, religion and nationality.”
Heilig said Peter Moloney has since left the family’s business.
More than 1,500 people have been charged with Jan. 6-related federal crimes. Over 950 of them have pleaded guilty. More than 200 others have been convicted by judges or juries after trials.
New Hampshire
Ex-state senator charged with theft by deception in connection to pandemic aid
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A former New Hampshire state senator accused last year of fraudulently obtaining federal COVID-19 loans and spending the money on luxury cars was charged this week with stealing separate state pandemic relief funds.
Republican Andy Sanborn, of Bedford, was charged with theft by deception, a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison, the attorney general’s office said Wednesday. According to prosecutors, he misrepresented the revenue from his Concord Casino business to receive $188,000 more than he should have from the state’s “Main Street Relief Fund” in 2020.
The charges come 13 months after state investigators said Sanborn fraudulently obtained nearly $900,000 from the federal Small Business Administration in 2021 and 2022 and spent more than $260,000 of it on race cars. Casinos and charitable gaming facilities weren’t eligible for such loans, but Sanborn omitted his business name, “Concord Casino,” from his application and listed his primary business activity as “miscellaneous services,” officials said.
Federal authorities were notified but haven’t brought charges. The allegations were enough, however, for the state to shut down the casino in December and order Sanborn to sell it. He has since sued the attorney general’s office, and his lawyers accuse the state of trying to thwart potential sales.
In a statement Wednesday, Sanborn’s lawyers called his arrest “an eleventh hour attempt to sabotage a sale.”
“We are disappointed but not surprised,” they said in a statement released by Attorney Mark Knights. “And we remain confident that the New Hampshire judiciary will continue to do justice and hold the AG accountable.”
Sanborn served four terms in the state Senate before unsuccessfully running for Congress in 2018.
