Former Mass.pizzeria owner gets 2-year sentence for using COVID-19 funds to start Vermont alpaca farm A former Massachusetts resident who once owned a North Shore pizzeria is heading to prison in connection with a scheme in which he used more than $660,000 in COVID-19 pandemic relief funding for personal expenses to help finance an alpaca farm in Vermont.Dana L.McIntyre, 59, of Grafton, Vermont, was sentenced Thursday to two years in prison and three years of supervised release, according to the U.S.Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts.
McIntyre, who used to live in the Massachusetts communities of Beverly and Essex, previously pleaded guilty to four counts of wire fraud and three counts of money laundering on April 13.The former owner of Rasta Pasta Pizzeria in Beverly used the names of his adult children to submit two fraudulent applications in March 2020 to the U.S.Small Business Administration for Economic Injury Disaster Loans for businesses that did not exist, according to federal prosecutors.Prosecutors said that starting in April 2020, McIntyre submitted and application and weekly certifications in order to receive Pandemic Unemployment Assistance benefits.In those filings, McIntyre claimed that he was not working or receiving income as a result of the pandemic, but the U.S.
Attorney’s Office said he was, in fact, still operating the pizzeria and paying himself income from the business.By September 2020, when McIntyre sold Rasta Pasta Pizzeria, he had received more than $17,000 in PUA and related benefits that he was not entitled to receive, prosecutors said.The U.S.Attorney’s Office also said that McIntyre submitted a fraudulent application in April 2020 for a Paycheck Protection Program loan of more than $660,000 through an SBA-approved lender.In his application, McIntyre inflated information about the pizzeria’s employees and payroll expenses and falsified an official tax form in an effort to qualify the business for a larger loan amount, according to prosecutors.Prosecutors said that after he received a PPP loan in excess of $660,000, McIntyre sold the pizzeria and used nearly all the money to purchase a farm in Vermont, as well as eight alpacas, and fund other personal expenses, including two vehicles and airtime for his crypto-currency themed radio show.
“Dana McIntyre capitalized on a national catastrophe and stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from a limited pool of money set aside to help struggling businesses to buy a farm, stock it with alpacas, and make a fresh start for himself in Vermont,” reads a statement from Jodi Cohen, special agent in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Boston Division.”He stole from the American taxpayers and the many small businesses which truly needed those loans to survive,” reads a statement from Acting United States Attorney Joshua S.Levy.”Mr.McIntyre’s greed betrayed the good intentions of the American taxpayer,” reads a statement from Special Agent in Charge Christina Scaringi with the U.S.Department of Housing and Urban Development.” U.S.District Court Judge Denise J.Casper also ordered McIntyre to pay $679,156 in restitution and forfeiture..
