Thread by @YDanasmithdutra

In a plea agreement filed today in United States District Court, William Sadleir, 67, of Beverly Hills, agreed to plead guilty to one count of bank fraud and one count of money laundering. Sadleir is scheduled to formally enter the guilty pleas on March 16.

🎩@jbadomics 😳🔥

https://twitter.com/FBILosAngeles/status/1502336797166112769

Sadleir filed bank loan applications that fraudulently sought more than $1.7 million dollars in forgivable PPP loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration (SBA) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. According to court documents, (Con’d)

Sadleir obtained the loans for three Aviron entities by falsely representing that the funds would be used to support payroll expenses for 33 employees at each company, when in fact the entities were no longer operational. (Cont’d)

Sadleir “expended a substantial amount of the fraudulent loan proceeds on utility bills, mortgage expenses, and his attorney, among other things,” he admitted in his plea agreement. He “did not use any of the fraudulent loan proceeds to pay employees of the Aviron companies.”

Once he pleads guilty to the two offenses, Sandleir will face a statutory maximum sentence of 50 years in federal prison. Prosecutors have agreed to recommend that whatever sentence is imposed should run concurrent with a sentence to be imposed in a pending case (Cont’d)

in the Southern District of New York. Sandleir is scheduled to be sentenced in the New York case on May 10 after he pleaded guilty in January to wire fraud for misappropriating more than $25 million that had been invested in Aviron.

U.S. prosecutors on Friday charged the founder and former owner of a Hollywood movie production and distribution company with defrauding a BlackRock Inc investment fund out of about$14 million to pay for luxuries including a Beverly Hills mansion. reuters.com/article/usa-cr…