{"id":8258,"date":"2023-03-22T07:04:55","date_gmt":"2023-03-22T12:04:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=8258"},"modified":"2023-03-22T07:04:59","modified_gmt":"2023-03-22T12:04:59","slug":"former-florida-state-lawmaker-pleads-guilty-to-laundering-covid-relief-money-could-face-35-years-in-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=8258","title":{"rendered":"Former Florida state lawmaker pleads guilty to laundering COVID relief money, could face 35 years in prison"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>According to an indictment, the 35-year-old allegedly filled out two applications&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/health\/infectious-disease\/coronavirus\">for COVID-19 relief money<\/a>&nbsp;for fabricated businesses \u2014 Vak Shack Inc. and Harding Farms.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/epa-covid-19-relief-funds-grants-green-infrastructure-environmental-justice\">EPA USED COVID-19 RELIEF FUNDS FOR GRANTS PROMOTING \u2018GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE,\u2019 \u2018ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Harding stated in an application for an Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) that the two businesses had over a half a dozen employees and gross revenue of more than $800,000 from the previous year. However, according to the indictment, the companies had no employees, and they had been dormant for months before the applications were filed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Harding applied for $150,000 in loans &#8220;he was not entitled&#8221; to, according to the DOJ. After receiving the proceeds, while he was still in office, Harding allegedly made&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxbusiness.com\/money\">three illegal monetary<\/a>&nbsp;transactions, each totaling more than $10,000.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/desantis-touts-ability-beat-biden-he-runs-president-think-hes-failed-country\">DESANTIS TOUTS ABILITY TO BEAT BIDEN IF HE RUNS FOR PRESIDENT: \u2018I THINK HE\u2019S FAILED THE COUNTRY&#8217;<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The former state representative transferred the money to his joint bank account, transferred money into a bank account of a third-party business and made a payment on a credit card bill,&nbsp;the indictment says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/us\/crime\">Harding&#8217;s sentencing hearing<\/a>&nbsp;is scheduled for July 25, 2023, at 11 a.m. at the United States Courthouse in Gainesville, Florida. Harding faces prison time for wire fraud, money laundering and making false statements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/former-flo rida-state-lawmaker-pleads-guilty-laundering-covid-reli ef-money-could-face-35-years-prison\">Foxnews<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br><br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to an indictment, the 35-year-old allegedly filled out two applications&nbsp;for COVID-19 relief money&nbsp;for fabricated businesses \u2014 Vak Shack Inc. and Harding Farms.&nbsp; EPA USED COVID-19 RELIEF FUNDS FOR GRANTS PROMOTING \u2018GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE,\u2019 \u2018ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE\u2019 Harding stated in an application for an Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) that the two businesses had over a half [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":8259,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1154],"tags":[1394,1899,4105],"class_list":["post-8258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-crime","tag-investigation","tag-state-legislators"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8258"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8260,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8258\/revisions\/8260"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}