VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Friday, the Department of Justice wrote a 59-year-old Virginia Beach man head pleaded guilty to charges of fraudulently taking more than $1.28 million from victims seeking loans.
Ronald A. Smith, 59, won't be officially sentenced until April 2021, but he faces a maximum penalty of 60 years in prison for the theft.
A release from the DOJ and United States Attorney G. Zachary Terwilliger said Smith's was a scam that affected at least 1,700 people.
Officials said Smith defrauded people from the company he shared with his wife (and co-defendant) Terri Miller: Business Development Group.
This online company advertised that, for a fee, it could help people work through the application process to obtain Small Business Administration (SBA) loans.
Most of the Business Development Group's customers never saw those loans. The DOJ said in many cases, customers weren't offered any help whatsoever with their applications.
"They solicited potential customers on the basis of false, fraudulent, and misleading statements and representations, including, among others, that the company was headquartered at the Trump Building in New York and had assisted well-known large companies in obtaining SBA loans," wrote the DOJ spokesperson. "They offered a money-back guarantee, but in fact employed various fraudulent methods to deny refunds."
Smith was charged for a nearly identical scam in 2006, and charged with seven years in prison that time, the release said.
This time, his charges are as follows:
- Wire fraud
- Engaging in monetary transactions in criminally derived property
Unrelated to his company's loan fraud charges, Smith also faces penalties for applying for unemployment while running his business. He took $9,600 in pandemic unemployment checks "to which he was not entitled."
For those allegations, Smith was charged with "fraud in connection with emergency benefits."
