Norwegian man sentenced to 2 years in prison for obtaining more than $240,000 through PPP loan fraud

A Norwegian man accused of filing numerous fraudulent applications to obtain more than $240,000 from a pandemic relief program was sentenced to two years in prison, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maine announced Friday.

Merton Weed Jr., 52, was sentenced Friday by U.S. District Judge Nancy Torresen to 24 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.

Weed was also ordered to pay $253,646 in restitution.

[RELATED: Norway Man Charged with PPP Loan, FHA Mortgage Fraud Faces Up to 20 Years in Prison After Plea Deal…]

According to court records, Weed filed eight fraudulent claims with the COVID-19-era Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), obtaining $243,745 in taxpayer-funded relief payments.

Prosecutors alleged that Weed listed false salary and employee information from fake companies that did not exist on applications, and falsified bank statements to support his applications.

“Motivated by greed, Merton Weed took advantage of a program intended to help small businesses survive economic uncertainty during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said U.S. Attorney Darcie McElwee.

“Mr. Weed has a long history of enriching himself through fraud, so it is perhaps not surprising that he has not won a single but eight is trying to take advantage of a time of international unrest,” McElwee said. “The Department of Justice and my office will continue to bring to justice those, like Mr. Weed, who sought to take advantage of an unprecedented crisis to line their own pockets. »

When he was first indicted in February 2023, Weed was charged with four counts of wire fraud and one count of filing a fraudulent application for a Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured mortgage.

Weed was charged with listing false employment and income information on the FHA loan, a federal crime punishable by a fine of up to $5.00 and a maximum prison term of two years.

As part of an October 2023 plea agreement, Weed pleaded guilty to all four counts of wire fraud, while the FHA fraud count was dropped.

Weed's plea deal with federal prosecutors came at a time when Maine Senate President Troy Jackson (D) was facing scrutiny for obtaining a similar FHA-insured loan for buy a second home in Augusta in September 2019.

[RELATED: Maine Senate President Troy Jackson Locked in Bitter Legal Fight Over Augusta Home He Bought – and Moved Into – in 2019…]

As part of the FHA loan application, President Jackson and his partner signed a mortgage document stipulating that they would make the Augusta property their “primary residence” for at least one year.

But when he submitted documents to the Maine Ethics Commission in 2020 while running for re-election in Senate District 1, he listed his primary residence as Allagash.

Jackson said he “never actually read” the mortgage document he signed when purchasing the Augusta property and told the Ethics Commission in a September 2023 letter that the home was a “temporary place of stay during the week”.

[RELATED: The Mortgage Broker Troy Jackson Threw Under the Bus Denies Wrongdoing: “Something seems a little fishy here”…]

In October 2023, the Maine Ethics Commission issued a 110-page memo recommending against further investigation into whether Jackson submitted false information to the Commission and violated the residency requirement during his candidacy for re-election in 2020.

“If the statements contained in Senator Jackson's preliminary response are correct, he has a compelling case that he remained a resident of Senatorial District 1, even though he occupied the Augusta property for most of September 2019 to September 2020,” said the Executive Director. Jonathan Wayne wrote in the note.

Issues related to Jackson's apparent misrepresentations on the mortgage document, allegations of insurance fraud and his exorbitant use of travel reimbursement funds are outside the jurisdiction of the Ethics Commission, which is limited to investigate the conduct of legislators in the exercise of their official duties.

Maine State Rep. John Andrews (R-Paris), author of the original ethics complaint against Jackson, told the Maine Wire after the Commission's memo was released that their decision essentially concluded that “the primary residence of Jackson was in Allagash and not Augusta when he signed an FHA loan form listing Augusta as his primary residence.

“This is a federal crime, and U.S. Attorney Darcie McElwee must investigate this matter to ensure the rule of law still applies in Maine,” Rep. Andrews said.

The FBI describes occupancy fraud, a type of mortgage application fraud, as occurring “when the borrower states on the application that they intend to live in the home they are purchasing that it is actually an investment property.”

Mortgage records indicate Jackson sold his Augusta home in 2021, for more than $100,000 what he paid for it.