Florida legislator indicted on fraud charges for COVID loans

State Rep. Joe Harding, a Republican from North Florida, was indicted Wednesday on costs of funds laundering and wire fraud after a federal grand jury said he falsely claimed two inactive companies of his experienced personnel in purchase to get coronavirus-similar financial loans.

The federal indictment accuses Harding, R-Ocala, of scheming to defraud the Small Small business Administration in order to get Financial Harm Catastrophe Financial loans, indicating he acquired or attempted to receive extra than $150,000 “to which he was not entitled,” according to a information launch from the U.S. Attorney’s Office environment for the Northern District of Florida.

Harding in a statement said he pleaded not responsible to the federal expenses and wishes “the public and my constituents to know that I absolutely repaid the bank loan and cooperated with investigators as asked for.”

He included that “on assistance from counsel, I will be unable to say nearly anything far more specific about the lawful proceedings” till afterwards and asked for prayers as he and his household “work for a honest and just resolution.”

Home Speaker Paul Renner explained he is “temporarily” eradicating Harding from his committee assignments “to permit him time to concentration on this make any difference.” Harding was to provide as the vice chair of the Wellness & Human Providers committee and the vice chair of the PreK-12 Appropriations subcommittee.

“In The united states we adhere to the rule of legislation, and as these kinds of, Agent Harding is presumed harmless and will have the prospect to plead his scenario in advance of a court,” Renner explained in a assertion. “Since the indictment does not relate to any facet of his legislative duties, any even further queries must be directed to his legal counsel.”

According to the indictment, in December 2020, Harding submitted financial loan programs for his organizations The Vak Shak Inc. and Harding Farms LLC, falsely symbolizing the range of personnel for the providers and falsely claiming the enterprises have been lively in 2019 and 2020.

In his loan application, Harding claimed The Vak Shak experienced gross profits of a lot more than $400,000 prior to the start out of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and that the firm experienced four workers. In fact, the organization had been dormant from 2017 to 2020, had no gross income and had no staff members, according to the indictment.

For Harding Farms, Harding said the firm experienced gross earnings of about $400,000 and experienced two workers. In reality, the firm was dormant from 2017 to 2020, experienced no income and experienced no staff members, in accordance to the indictment.

Harding incorporated “fraudulently created” lender statements for Harding Farms to support his application, according to the indictment.

All-around the identical time he submitted the personal loan application, Harding reinstated the businesses with Florida’s Division of Point out Division of Firms to make it show up the corporations had been energetic, in accordance to the report.

Harding has been in office considering that 2020. He drew countrywide focus earlier this yr when he released Home Invoice 1557, which supporters connect with the “Parental Legal rights in Education” invoice, but opponents refer to as the “don’t say gay” bill.

The legislation prohibits classroom instruction and conversations about sexual orientation and gender identity in grades K through 3 — but lessons for older grades can be impacted, as well, if they are discussed in means that are not “age ideal or developmentally correct.”

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the measure into legislation in March, right after the proposal turned a countrywide lightning rod and sparked criticism from LGBTQ organizations and Disney, a person of the state’s major employers and a big company political donor.

The most sentence for wire fraud is 20 decades, although the most sentence for money laundering is 10 a long time and the sentence is 5 years for making bogus statements. Harding’s trial is established for Jan. 11.

Herald/Instances Tallahassee Bureau team writer Ana Ceballos contributed to this report.

This tale was initially posted December 7, 2022 6:23 PM.