Grafton alpaca farmer pleads guilty to Covid funds fraud

By Adam Gaffin
Universal Hub in Boston

A Grafton alpaca farmer and former pizza parlor owner from Massachusetts pleaded guilty last Friday in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts to obtaining more than $660,000 in federal Covid-19 funds based on pizza parlor employees he didn’t have so that he could retire to the life of an alpaca farmer and cryptocurrency radio host in Vermont, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office reports.

Dana McIntyre, 59, who still lives on and operates the Houghtonville Road farm in Grafton, now awaits sentencing on July 12 on four counts of wire fraud and three counts of money laundering. Each of the charges carries a maximum potential sentence of 20 years in federal prison.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s office:

McIntyre is the former owner of Rasta Pasta Pizzeria in Beverly. In March 2020, McIntyre used the names of his adult children to submit two fraudulent applications to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) for Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) for fictitious businesses. Beginning in April 2020, McIntyre submitted an application and weekly certifications in order to receive Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) benefits. In these filings, McIntyre falsely claimed that he was not working or receiving income as a result of the pandemic, while McIntyre in fact was still operating the restaurant and paying himself income from the business. By September 2020, when McIntyre sold the restaurant, he had received over $17,000 in PUA and related benefits that he was not entitled to receive.

In April 2020, McIntyre submitted a fraudulent application for a PPP loan of over $660,000 through an SBA-approved lender. In the application, McIntyre inflated information about the pizzeria’s employees and payroll expenses and falsified an official tax form in an effort to qualify the business for a larger loan amount. After receiving a PPP loan of over $660,000, McIntyre sold the pizzeria and used nearly all the funds to purchase and improve an alpaca farm in Vermont and on other personal expenses, including two vehicles and air time for his crypto-currency themed radio show.

According to an affidavit by an FBI agent on the case, McIntyre used the PPP funds – based on a claim that he had 47 employees at his pizza place, rather than the three or four he actually had – to buy a farm in Grafton for $395,000. He then stocked the farm with alpacas for which he paid almost $10,000, as well as spending $7,800 to buy fencing for them and $16,555 for storage sheds, according to the affidavit. He also paid $14,000 for a 2007 GMC Sierra and $8,500 for a 1950 Hudson.

Once the farm was outfitted and operational, McIntyre sold Rasta Pasta.