Ex-mayor ‘betrayed’ city, stole nearly $1M of COVID relief funds in Georgia, feds say

A former Georgia mayor “betrayed” his city’s trust by stealing nearly $1 million of COVID-19 relief funds — meant to help struggling businesses and churches — for his own expenses, federal prosecutors said.

This includes more than $100,000 of stolen money he used to pay off his lakefront home in Macon, court filings show.

“The citizens of Stonecrest deserved a dependable and honest Mayor,” court documents state.

“What they got instead was a crook who stumbled into holding responsibility for overseeing the disbursement of millions of dollars in federal aid, and seized as much as he could for himself.”

Jason Lary, who was elected as Stonecrest’s mayor in November 2016, was sentenced to more than four years in prison after pleading guilty to charges in connection with his fraud scheme, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia said in a July 13 news release. He also must pay nearly $120,000 in restitution.

Lary’s attorney Dwight Thomas told McClatchy News in a statement that “Mr. Lary has fully cooperated with the Government and fully accepted responsibility for his conduct.”

“He looks forward to redeeming himself with the citizens of Stonecrest and seeing his vision of Stonecrest as a ‘city on the hill’ of DeKalb County.”

Keri Farley, the special agent in charge of FBI Atlanta, said in a statement that “this sentencing holds Lary accountable for abusing his position of trust and blatant disrespect for the law.”

Stonecrest received $6.2 million in relief funds

After the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act was signed into law in March 2020, $125 million in pandemic relief funds were given to DeKalb County, which is made up of Stonecrest, Atlanta and more, the news release said.

Stonecrest is a city of more than 59,000, about 20 miles east of Atlanta.

As a result, $6.2 million of the county’s funds were given to Stonecrest in July 2020 to help the city during the COVID-19 pandemic, and a large chunk of the money was stolen by Lary through elaborate means, according to prosecutors.

Specifically, the mayor had Stonecrest enter into a contract with a private company he created himself “behind the scenes,” and allowed the company to distribute the COVID-19 relief funds however he wanted, prosecutors said. He called this company the Municipal Resource Partners Corporation, Inc., or MRPC.

The millions in COVID-19 relief were transferred directly to an MRPC bank account, according to court documents.

The ex-mayor’s COVID-19 relief fraud scheme

Authorities said Lary used “sophisticated means” to execute the fraud scheme.

MRPC is one of three front companies established by Lary that he used in his plan to steal the COVID-19 relief money, according to prosecutors.

Of the $6.2 million given to Stonecrest, the city’s churches and non-profits were meant to benefit from $1 million, the release said. This was intended for the costs of masks, COVID-19 information and testing, and more.

Meanwhile, $5 million was meant to go toward small businesses, according to prosecutors.

Before the COVID-19 relief money was distributed, Lary used $108,000 of the funds to pay off the mortgage of his lakefront home in Macon, according to prosecutors. He did so with the help of a now-convicted co-conspirator, Lania Boone, who he hired as MPRC’s bookkeeper.

“Around the same time, Lary directed approximately $7,600 in stolen relief funds to be used for Boone’s son’s college tuition and rent,” the release said.

In November 2020, Stonecrest allowed businesses to apply for COVID-19 relief money through an online application which asked “are you willing to allocate 25% of your grant to marketing your business?,” according to prosecutors.

More than 400 Stonecrest businesses applied, but fewer than 150 were approved, court documents show.

Boone “signed dozens of checks on behalf of MRPC, directing relief funds to individuals, businesses, churches, and non-profit organizations of Lary’s own choosing,” the release said.

‘Contributions’ were sent to businesses owned by Lary

When it came to the chosen churches, the mayor directed them to pay a portion of the relief funds for purposes specified by him, prosecutors said.

In one case, he gave a Stonecrest church a $150,000 relief check but said $50,000 had to go to Real Estate Management Consultants, LLC — a company he controlled — so the money could purportedly help people pay for home repairs they could not afford amid the pandemic, according to the release.

“The churches thought they were contributing to worthy causes, but they were contributing only to the cause of improving Mr. Lary’s finances,” court documents state.

Instead of going to the “worthy” cause, the $50,000 helped pay off Lary’s federal, state and local taxes, the release said.

Additionally, Lary directed the businesses chosen to receive relief funds to pay “contributions” that went to entities he owned, according to prosecutors. These businesses were unaware Lary owned such entities.

The relief funds deposited into the (the entities) accounts were used by Lary to benefit himself and his associates. For example, Lary used relief funds held by Visit Us to pay for an associate’s political advertising,” the release said.

“In total, businesses were defrauded out of hundreds of thousands of dollars of relief funds.”

Lary stole $924,405 in COVID-19 relief funds, the government determined, court documents show.

On Jan. 5, Lary pleaded guilty to wire fraud, federal program theft and conspiracy, prosecutors said. His co-conspirator, Boone, is scheduled for sentencing on Aug. 15.

“What he did was deplorable. Absolutely deplorable,” District Court Judge Thomas W. Thrash Jr. said in court, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

Lary’s scheme is one of many that law enforcement has busted since the pandemic began. In late December, the U.S. Secret Service estimated nearly $100 billion in COVID-19 relief money had been stolen nationwide, a news release said.

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