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Indiana man receives federal sentence for conspiring to steal nearly $700,000 from businesses and COVID-19 programs

According to federal officials 73-year-old Robert Hall conspired with others to defraud multiple businesses through email schemes from 2019 to 2020.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — An Indiana man is headed to federal prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to steal from businesses and COVID-19 programs.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office Southern District of Indiana, 73-year-old Robert Hall of Bloomington conspired with others to defraud multiple businesses through email schemes from 2019 to 2020.

During the pandemic, Hall tried to take advantage of the COVID-19 loan and unemployment programs, working to defraud multiple states.

Documents also state Hall worked with his co-conspirators to launder stolen funds through his bank accounts

In September 2019, an employee of a business received a fake email purporting to be a recognized vendor that the business previously worked with. They said the purported vendor explained that due to an audit involving its’ primary bank account, future payments should be made to a different account. Authorities said that account belonged to Hall under the guise of an electric company. The fake email caused the business to “unknowingly” transfer more than $113,000 into Hall’s personal account.

Another example was in July 2020 after the CARES Act was passed. Authorities said fake documents were submitted to the Small Business Administration for a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan using stolen identities. The loan checks were deposited into an account which Hall controlled. Documents say Hall conducted similar schemes when his co-conspirators applied for three Injury Disaster Loans using stolen identities of a person and two businesses, which also went into Hall’s personal accounts.

Fraudulent activity was also reported between May 2020 and December 2020 when fake unemployment benefit applications were submitted to six different states using more than a dozen stolen identities. Those funds were placed in Hall’s accounts and then sent to the co-conspirators.

Authorities said Hall kept 20% of the funds for his role in the schemes and transferred the remaining money to co-conspirators using checks and Bitcoin purchases.

Hall almost got away with stealing nearly $700,000, but some of the transactions were blocked or reversed. Authorities said Hall received nearly $400,000 in the schemes.

“This defendant played a critical role in multiple fraud schemes, including stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from vital relief programs created to support individuals and businesses in the midst of a global pandemic,” Zachary A. Myers, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, said in a statement. “We will continue to aggressively investigate and prosecute those who defrauded COIVD-19 relief programs. My thanks to the U.S. Secret Service and our prosecutors for their efforts to hold fraudsters accountable and recover money stolen from the American public during this unprecedented crises.”

Hall will spend the next three years in prison and three years of supervised probation.

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