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. A bookkeeper and spouse of a former Stonecrest official accepted a plea deal in federal court Friday afternoon for participating in the same fraud scheme that brought down the city's founding mayor. 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. Last year the Northern District of Georgia US Attorney's office prosecuted at least 100 people involved in a total of $26 million in CARES Act fraud. The mayor only votes in the event of a tie a rarity for a five-member City Council. The application included the question, are you willing to allocate 25% of your grant to marketing your business? Hundreds of businesses applied for relief funds, but most of the applicants were rejected. Instead, prosecutors said Lary used the money to cover his own tax liabilities and pay off the mortgage on his lake house. Lary directed $7,600 of the federal relief dollars to pay Boones sons college tuition and rent. "It's time for me to retire from politics and focus on my health," Lary said. A former suburban Atlanta mayor was sentenced to nearly five years in prison on Wednesday for masterminding a scheme to steal nearly $925,000 of the $6.2 million in COVID-19 relief funds that. An official website of the United States government. Sentencing is scheduled for May 12. This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. One of the grants was to his church, which he awarded $150,000. 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. Former mayor of metro Atlanta city pleads guilty to fraud Lary asked potential recipients to kickback 25% of their grant to other companies for "marketing" purposes. "There was never an interest on anybodys part to kick back or filter money back or any of that nonsense.". Lary placed the defendant, Clarence Boone, who was then Senior Economic Development Manager for Stonecrest, in charge of overseeing the Small Business Program. 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. He explained he needs to take some time to work with doctors and care for himself. ATLANTA - Clarence Boone, the former Senior Economic Development Manager of Stonecrest, pleaded guilty to conspiring with his wife, Lania Boone, and the former Mayor of Stonecrest, Jason Lary, to steal pandemic relief funds intended to support small businesses in Stonecrest.
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