PROVIDENCE – A Middletown resident was sentenced to 82 months in federal prison for fraudulently seeking $4.7 million in Paycheck Protection Program loans, The U.S. Attorney’s Office District of Rhode Island announced Tuesday.
Michael C. Moller was found guilty of submitting 11 fraudulent loan applications for $4.7 million, for which he received $599,251. Applications were in his own name, as well as in the name of his father, and girlfriend’s son and brother’s names. The USAO also said that the fraud constituted a violation of the terms of his federally supervised release from prison.
Moller was ordered to pay restitution to the banks that loaned him the money as part of his sentencing in an amount totaling his approved fraudulent PPP loans.
Moller had been previously convicted for committing four armed bank robberies, as well as tax fraud.
The USAO also added that the FBI determined that Moller defrauded inmates of the Wyatt Detention Center out of $17,000 while awaiting sentencing for defrauding the PPP program by convincing them to give his girlfriend money for a purported lawyer to assist them in their criminal and immigration cases. Moller posed as the lawyer, making calls from inside the facility posing as the lawyer.
