Pastor must give up Mercedes he bought with stolen COVID relief funds, feds in GA say
A South Georgia pastor accused of lying to get thousands in federal COVID-19 relief funds must forfeit the luxury sedan on which he spent the stolen money, prosecutors say.
Mack Devon Knight, 45, of Kingsland faces a maximum of 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to two counts of wire fraud, the U.S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia announced March 25.
The charges stem from a CARES Act fraud scheme that netted Knight nearly $150,000 — most of which prosecutors said he used to buy himself a Mercedes-Benz S-Class, according to a news release. The pastor-turned-restaurateur and tax preparer also faces hefty financial penalties, restitution and up to three years of supervised release.
In 2020, Congress passed the CARES Act to provide emergency funding to taxpayers and small business owners hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. Knight was accused of scamming the system after authorities said he lied to the Small Business Administration and submitted fake tax documents in February and March 2021 that purportedly showed his businesses had earned “hundreds of thousands of dollars of gross revenue” prior to the pandemic, McClatchy News previously reported.
The pastor also falsified bank statements, prosecutors said, so that the SBA would approve his loan application.
“I have made fraud related to these funds a priority, and Mack Knight’s prosecution should once again make it clear that this office and our law enforcement partners will not tolerate those who would try to personally profit from this program by inventing businesses and submitting fake documents,” U.S. Attorney David H. Estes said in a statement.
Knight was ordered to forfeit the Mercedes to the U.S. government as part of a plea agreement, according to federal authorities.
During his State of the Union address earlier this month, President Joe Biden also announced his administration’s plans to crack down on fraudsters “who stole billions in relief money meant for small businesses and millions of Americans,” Scripps Media reported. The effort includes the appointment of a chief prosecutor at the DOJ who will “focus on the most egregious forms of pandemic fraud” and the creation of a special COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force, according to The White House.
A sentencing date for Knight hasn’t been set.
This story was originally published March 28, 2022 at 1:41 PM with the headline "Pastor must give up Mercedes he bought with stolen COVID relief funds, feds in GA say."