The former chief executive of a Hollywood movie production company has agreed to plead guilty to federal fraud and money laundering charges, admitting that he falsely applied for and received $1.7 million in COVID-19 relief loans.
In a plea agreement filed Friday in United States District Court, 67-year-old William Sadleir of Beverly Hills, agreed to plead guilty to one count of bank fraud and one count of money laundering, the United States Attorney for the Central District of California said in a news release.
He is scheduled to formally enter the guilty pleas on March 16.
Sadleir headed Aviron Pictures prior to being terminated in late 2019, according to the U.S. Department of Justice
The former movie executive filed bank loan applications that fraudulently sought more than $1.7 million dollars in forgivable Paycheck Protection Program loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
According to court documents, Sadleir obtained the loans for three Aviron entities by falsely representing that the funds would be used to support payroll expenses for 33 employees at each company, when in fact the entities were no longer operational, the news release states.
Within days of the loans being funded on May 1, 2020, Sandleir transferred nearly $1 million to his personal checking account, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.
Sandleir “expended a substantial amount of the fraudulent loan proceeds on utility bills, mortgage expenses, and his personal attorney, among other things,” he admitted in his plea agreement. Sandleir “did not use any of the fraudulent loan proceeds to pay employees of the Aviron companies.”
Following the discovery of the fraudulent loan applications, federal agents seized $308,058 of fraudulent loan proceeds from an Aviron account, and Sandleir returned $1,122,090 to the bank that funded the loans, the news release says.
As a result of the fraudulent PPP loan scheme, the Small Business Administration suffered losses of $282,566. In his plea agreement, Sandleir agreed to pay full restitution.
Once he pleads guilty to the two offenses, Sandleir will face a statutory maximum sentence of 50 years in federal prison, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.
Prosecutors have agreed to recommend that whatever sentence is imposed should run concurrent with a sentence to be imposed in a pending case in the Southern District of New York. Sandleir is scheduled to be sentenced in the New York case on May 10 after he pleaded guilty in January to wire fraud for misappropriating more than $25 million that had been invested in Aviron.
The Los Angeles case was investigated by the FBI, the Small Business Administration’s Office of Inspector General, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s Office of Inspector General.