Man gets two-year jail for buying alpaca farm with Covid relief money
26-year-old Inmate commits suicide in Tihar jail (Representative image)
The coronavirus pandemic changed thousands and thousands of lives across the world as it caused deaths, slowed down economies and shook the general tendency of people and policymakers to take public health for granted. Strict lockdowns meant that travel, tourism and hospitality sectors took a hit. In US, the government helped businesses across the country stay afloat by offering monetary help, large and small.
Dana McIntyre (59), a pizzeria owner in Boston has now been handed a two-year prison term for taking relief money from the government and then using it to buy a farm, some vehicles, an alpaca farm and more.
“This was no momentary lapse in the fog of the pandemic,” Joshua S. Levy, the acting U.S. attorney for Massachusetts, said in a statement as mentioned by The New York Times (NYT).
“He stole from the American taxpayers and the many small businesses which truly needed those loans to survive.”
He told NYT that he was to report to prison in January. He claimed that he had viewed the money he got from the government as a loan which he would eventually pay back.
McIntyre received more than USD 660,000 from the government. The court has now ordered him to pay back $680,000.
He owns Rasta Pasta Pizzeria in Beverly, a Boston suburb. He also has a podcast show “The Dana Crypto Show.”
New York Times reported that after getting the money, McIntyre bought a farm in Vermont. He also bought a USD 14,000 pickup truck and a vintage car worth USD 8500.
He also made payments totalling to $6500 to broadcaster of his podcastand spent some money on home improvements.
“It wasn’t this mastermind programme to steal money from the government and go up and start this alpaca farm,” he said. “No, it unfolded and it took on its own life form.”
McIntyre has now become one among more than 3100 Americans who face charges of using pandemic relief funds for purposes other than related to pandemic-era survival. Federal prosecutors are scrambling to recover billions of dollars from people who falsely obtained money from government.
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