Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr. today announced the guilty pleas of WILLIAM FELCON, THOMAS A. FELCON and their companies for fraudulently obtaining loans from United States Small Business Administration (“SBA”) pandemic relief programs.
THOMAS A. FELCON pled guilty today to Attempted Grand Larceny in the Second Degree and will be sentenced to six months in jail and 3 years of probation on August 15, 2023. He controlled two businesses, The Nebula Group and GPT Property Consultants, Inc, which each pled guilty to one count of Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree. The companies will forfeit approximately $650,000 seized from the companies’ accounts. The money will be paid as restitution to the SBA to cover $409,000 stolen from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and additional funds fraudulently obtained from the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (“EIDL”) program.
WILLIAM FELCON pled guilty last Thursday to the top charge of Grand Larceny in the Second Degree and will be sentenced July 25, 2023, to 50 hours of community service and three years of probation after forfeiting $175,000 seized from corporate accounts at Valley National Bank, as well as forfeiting an additional approximately $36,000 out of pocket to cover money owed to the SBA. The companies WILLIAM FELCON controlled, A L One, Inc. and A L One Consulting, Inc., each pled guilty today to one count of Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree.
“While New York businesses were in dire need of financial support during the pandemic, William and Thomas Felcon defrauded the system and obtained loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration by lying on their applications,” said District Attorney Bragg. “We will not allow public programs to be raided and used as a personal piggybank for greedy individuals and companies.”
As admitted in their pleas, from April 7, 2020, to June 17, 2021, WILLIAM FELCON engaged in a scheme with THOMAS FELCON and others, to steal PPP money from the SBA and SBA-authorized lending institutions. WILLIAM FELCON is the president of A L One Inc. and A L One Consulting Inc., and THOMAS FELCON assisted with the hiring, supervising, and payment of subcontractors.
Both defendants made false statements in numerous loan applications regarding the companies’ number of employees, payroll amounts and intended use of the loan proceeds to the PPP and EIDL programs. The loan programs were designed to assist businesses with retaining employees during the pandemic emergency, but none of the companies had employees or payroll expenses at all relevant times of the scheme.
To facilitate the scheme, when applying for PPP loans, THOMAS A. and WILLIAM FELCON created fraudulent IRS quarterly federal tax reporting forms that falsely inflated the number of employees for each of the companies, and the amounts of the respective companies’ wages and payroll taxes.
Assistant District Attorneys James J. Hanley and Zachary Weintraub handled the prosecution of this case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Mike Ohm (Deputy Chief of the Rackets Bureau), Judy Salwen (Principal Deputy Chief of the Rackets Bureau), Jodie Kane (Chief of the Rackets Bureau and Acting Chief of the Investigation Division). Assistant District Attorney Jaime Hickey-Mendoza also assisted with the prosecution.
The investigation was led by former Rackets Senior Investigator Amanda Bauza and her team, under the supervision of Walter Alexander (Chief Investigator), Michael Wigdor (Assistant Chief Racket Investigator), and Sgt. Daniel Clark-El. Investigative Analyst Philetus Holt and Trial Preparation Assistants Yanisa Campusano, Samantha Kritzer, and Eleanor Bock assisted with the investigation.
Investigative support also came from the High Technology Analysis Unit (Director Steven Moran, Supervising Computer Forensic Analyst Doug Daus, and Cyber Response Investigator Lauretta Gorman) and Forensic Accounting & Financial Investigations Bureau (Senior Financial Investigator Nicholas Cangro and Forensic Accountant Investigator Edward Keegan). Former Trial Preparation Assistant Nichols Quinn and former Principal Financial Investigator Robert Ryan also assisted with the case.
D.A. Bragg thanked the U.S. SBA, especially Kathleen Littwin of the SBA’s Office of the Inspector General, the New York State Department of Labor and the New York State Inspector General – Workers’ Compensation Fraud Inspector General for their assistance in the investigation.
Defendants:
Thomas A. Felcon
Howard Beach, N.Y.
Convicted:
- Attempted Grand Larceny in the Second Degree, a class D felony, one count
William Felcon
Manhasset Hills, N.Y.
Convicted:
- Grand Larceny in the Second Degree, a class C felony, one count
A L One Inc.
New Hyde Park, N.Y.
Convicted:
- Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree, a class E felony, one count
A L One Consulting Inc.
New Hyde Park, N.Y.
Convicted:
- Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree, a class E felony, one count
GPT Property Consultants, Inc.
South Ozone Park, N.Y.
Convicted:
- Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree, a class E felony, one count
The Nebula Group
South Ozone Park, N.Y.
Convicted:
- Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree, a class E felony, one count
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