Appeals court upholds convictions for Fort Myers man in COVID relief fraud case

The U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta has upheld the convictions against Casey Crowther in scam that netted him $2 million that he spent on horse, boat.

Tomas Rodriguez
Fort Myers News-Press

The appeals court has upheld the convictions of a Fort Myers roofer in a COVID relief fraud case.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta has affirmed the convictions and sentence of Casey David Crowther, 37, in one of the first federal appeals involving a fraudulent COVID-relief loan.

In March 2021, a federal jury in Fort Myers found Crowther guilty of bank fraud; making a false statement to a lending institution; and two counts of money laundering in connection with his Paycheck Protection Program loan scheme.

Prior to his trial, Crowther pleaded guilty to other bank-fraud and false-statement charges related to a separate scheme in which Crowther had created fake bank statements to justify a loan for a nearly $1.3 million waterfront house in St. James City.

U.S. District Judge John E. Steele then sentenced Crowther to 37 months in prison and three years of supervised release.

Crowther had been serving his bank fraud sentence in a federal prison in Alabama after the denial of motions seeking to let him remain free pending his appeal.

The Fort Myers roofer has been an inmate at the minimum security Federal Prison Camp Montgomery at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama.

Crowther appealed his convictions on the PPP charges, as well as his sentence.

He argued that he was permitted to use PPP funds for any purpose as long as he intended to repay the loan. The Eleventh Circuit rejected Crowther’s arguments and affirmed his convictions and sentence. 

Congress created the Paycheck Protection Program to facilitate up to $349 billion in low-interest, potentially forgivable loans for qualified businesses struggling to make payroll or pay operating expenses in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The loans were provided by private lenders and guaranteed by the Small Business Association, and could be used only for payroll and certain other expenses necessary to maintain business operations during the pandemic — primarily payroll.

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Crowther was indicted by a federal grand jury in 2020 and accused of falsely acquiring $2 million in COVID-19 relief funds. A federal grand jury a month later returned a superseding indictment charging him with bank fraud, making a false statement to a lending institution and illegal monetary transactions.

In April 2020, Crowther obtained a $2.1 million PPP loan by saying he intended to use the money for payroll, rent and utilities for his company, Target Roofing and Sheet Metal, Inc.

According to the evidence presented at trial, he instructed his bank to deposit the funds into a secret account separate from his company's main operating account.

Authorities said he quickly used the account for personal use, spending nearly $700,000 on a 40-foot pleasure boat and $55,000 on a horse.

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He also used PPP funds to pay down personal credit-card debt, a loan owed to an old business partner and his company’s line of credit, which were not permitted uses.

When Crowther's bank warned him that he was likely to be audited, authorities said he attempted to conceal his fraud by falsely "hiring" family members and dozens of fictitious employees to inflate his company's apparent payroll.

Authorities said he hid the true purpose of certain wire transfers, saying the boat payment was an "equipment purchase" and the horse payment was for "roofing material."

Tomas Rodriguez is a Breaking/Live News Reporter for the Naples Daily News and The News-Press. You can reach Tomas at TRodriguez@gannett.com or 772-333-5501. Connect with him on Twitter @TomasFRoBeltran, Instagram @tomasfrobeltran and Facebook @tomasrodrigueznews.