Missouri Man Found Guilty of Pandemic Fraud, Witness Tampering, Clean Air Act Violations

ST. LOUIS - A jury on Friday found a business owner from Farmington, Missouri guilty of all the charges he faced in trial this week, including bank fraud, Clean Air Act violations and threatening witnesses.

The jury in U.S. District Court in St. Louis convicted Christopher Carroll, 54, of three counts of bank fraud, three counts of making false statements to a financial institution, one count of conspiracy to violate the Clean Air Act, 13 violations of the Clean Air Act and two counts of threatening a witness.

A company part owned by Carroll, Whiskey Dix Big Truck Repair LLC, was also found guilty of 16 Clean Air Act violations.

"The jury found Christopher Carroll responsible for nearly $3,000,000 in pandemic relief loan fraud, poisoning the air through Clean Air Act violations and then threatening witnesses to try and cover up his crimes," said U.S. Attorney Sayler A. Fleming. "He lined his pockets with money that was supposed to save jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic. He used more of the loan money to buy land and a fleet of trucks so he could start a trucking company, and then had the emissions control equipment removed to save on fuel costs. We will seek a significant prison sentence for this defendant and his company and any sentence, by law, will include mandatory restitution."

"Christopher Carroll's company was granted millions of dollars from the PPP program but laid off dozens and dozens of its employees," said Acting Special Agent in Charge Chris Crocker of the FBI St. Louis Division. "To add insult to injury, Carroll wouldn't have even qualified for the funds if it weren't for his employees. We thank the jury for holding Carroll accountable for fleecing the PPP program, which was designed to help people who were out of a job through no fault of their own during the pandemic."

According to evidence and testimony from the trial, Carroll and his partner, George Reed, submitted a false and fraudulent application for a $1.2 million Pandemic Protection program loan in April of 2020 for the time share exit company they ran, Square One Group LLC. The loan application contained false statements, including that Reed and Carroll's wives owned the company. Reed and Carroll submitted loan applications in their spouses' names to conceal Carroll's status as a paroled felon, which would have precluded his company from receiving PPP funds.

Carroll did not use the money to pay dozens of employees who were out of work, or keep their health insurance in effect, Assistant U.S. Attorney Gwendolyn Carroll said during closing arguments Friday. Roughly two weeks later, Carroll began buying trucks and land to start a trucking company. Carroll and Reed then applied for loan forgiveness, falsely claiming that they'd spent the money on payroll and other permitted expenses.

They then sought a second loan of more than $1.6 million. When that loan was approved, Carroll and Reed took a total of $660,000 in "owner draws" from the company, the evidence showed.

But Carroll didn't stop with pandemic loan fraud, Gwendolyn Carroll told jurors. He had emissions control equipment designed to reduce pollutants removed from Whiskey Dix's fleet of diesel trucks. During the resulting investigation, Carroll would later ask one employee to "take the fall," and told another that he would stop paying for his lawyer if he talked to federal agents. He did follow through on that threat.

Reed, 69, pleaded guilty to bank fraud in September of 2022 and admitted fraudulently applying for, obtaining and using the two PPP loans. He admitted that the company failed to pay a "significant number" of employees, despite their receipt of the loans that would have allowed them to do so. His plea also says Carroll terminated the health insurance benefits of at least 17 employees.

The FBI and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Gwendolyn Carroll and Kyle Bateman are prosecuting the case.