Former Georgia mayor to spend nearly 5 years in prison for stealing COVID funds Former Mayor Jason Lary, once considered one of the founding fathers of Stonecrest, Georgia, has been sentenced to serve nearly five years in federal prison for stealing COVID funds that were supposed to go to local businesses and churches.
He initially denied the accusations, but last January, Lary pled guilty to wire fraud, federal program theft, and conspiracy to commit federal program theft for stealing nearly $120,000 in COVID funds issued by the federal government. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Thomas Thrash sentenced Lary to 57 months in prison and ordered him to pay restitution for all the money he stole.
“What he did was deplorable. Absolutely deplorable,” Thrash said during sentencing. “At the time of the greatest medical and economic catastrophe in generations, Mr. Lary, instead of being the honest and respectable mayor that he was elected to be ... used that as an opportunity to steal.”
FOX5 Atlanta reported that Lary laundered the COVID money through dummy companies he created and that he spent much of the money he stole to pay off his lake house in Macon, Georgia. .........
https://www.theblaze.com/news/georgia-mayor-stole-covid-funds
