A third person has been implicated in connection with the city of Stonecrest’s pandemic relief spending scandal.
Federal prosecutors announced Wednesday afternoon that Clarence Boone, former senior economic development manager for DeKalb County’s largest city, had not only been charged with a single count of conspiracy to commit federal program theft but had already entered a guilty plea.
His sentencing is scheduled for March 13.
Boone’s wife, Lania, and former Stonecrest Mayor Jason Lary have previously been charged and sentenced in connection with the scheme that involved pilfering portions of federal COVID-19 relief funds meant to help small businesses stay afloat during the pandemic.
“Boone and the former mayor conspired to fraudulently line each other’s pockets with relief funds that were desperately needed by struggling businesses in Stonecrest,” U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan said in a news release. “We will continue to uncover and prosecute those who exploit government positions and COVID relief programs to fuel their own greed.”
Generally speaking, the scheme involved Lary using his influence to put a third-party nonprofit in control of handling the $6.2 million allotment of federal relief funds that Stonecrest received in 2020. Clarence Boone was tasked with overseeing the program and his wife was hired an administrator.
With one Boone in charge, the other writing checks and Lary secretly controlling other entities that were soliciting small businesses for bogus “marketing” costs tied to their loans, authorities say the trio was able to do as they pleased with the money.
Investigators caught on before much of it could be spent. But the mortgage on Lary’s lakefront home was paid off — as were tuition, rent, books and a meal plan for the Boones’ college-aged son.
Wednesday’s announcement also said Clarence Boone and the former mayor “circumvented the application process and directed more than $50,000 to a business that they knew was not conducting any legitimate operations.” Boone later “attempted to conceal the scheme by directing the business’s owner to submit an application that contained false statements,” officials said.
Lary pleaded guilty to wire fraud, federal program theft and conspiracy and was sentenced earlier this year to serve 57 months in prison. He’s scheduled to begin serving his sentence at a facility in Alabama on Thursday.
Lania Boone, like her husband, faced only a single count of conspiracy. She was sentenced to serve six months, a term she started at a facility in Texas late last month.
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