A Rhode Island contractor’s multi-year campaign of fraud, harassment, and abuse in the United States Bankruptcy Court has landed him three years in federal prison, announced United States Attorney Zachary A. Cunha.
Ernest P. Ricci, 62, of North Kingstown, previously admitted to a federal judge that he fraudulently applied for and received COVID-related Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) from the Small Business Administration (SBA), money that he laundered in an effort to conceal it from the bankruptcy court.
Ricci was sentenced today by U.S. District Court Chief Judge John J. McConnell, Jr., to 36 months of incarceration to be followed by three years of federal supervised release. Ricci was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $129,306 to the SBA and $77,568 to the IRS, jointly and severally with his wife. He pleaded guilty in November 2023 to charges of bankruptcy fraud, obstruction, suborning perjury, wire fraud, and money laundering.
In October 2017, prior to filing a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy petition in an attempt to protect a $1.5 million dollar home in Florida that he and his wife used as both rental property and a vacation home, and on which he had failed to make any mortgage payments for approximately five years, Ricci transferred all of the assets of his business: Premier Home Restoration LLC (Premier), to his wife. He then falsely submitted documents to the Bankruptcy Court, under oath, indicating that he had been unemployed for many years, that he had no income, that he garnered no compensation of any kind from his wife’s company, that he controlled no bank accounts, and that he had no assets or properties other than the Florida home. In fact, it was determined, Ricci continued to control Premier after he transferred the company to his wife; that he ran its day-to-day operations; and that he made use of income from the company to maintain his lifestyle, none of which he disclosed to the Bankruptcy Court.
Ricci also failed to truthfully disclose rental income from his Florida property and from another property that he owned in New Hampshire; and that he was untruthful when he claimed that he held a $200,000 mortgage in the name of another person for the New Hampshire property when, in fact, he owned the property himself and was collecting rent, and that he convinced that person to commit perjury before the bankruptcy trustee.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney John P. McAdams. The matter was investigated by the FBI, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, and the United States Bankruptcy Trustee. Ricci’s schemes employed to hide assets and mislead the Bankruptcy Court were detailed in court documents, including stalling tactics, frivolous pleadings, and fraudulent claims, as well as numerous combative communications sent by Ricci to the bankruptcy Trustee, some laced with profanities.
Related Federal Cases
- Rhode Island Contractor Sentenced for Bankruptcy Fraud Scheme · Rhode Island
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- Phan and Tran Sentenced in $330,000 Cell Phone Fraud Scheme · New Hampshire
- Bankruptcy Bandit: MD Man Gets 90 Months for $1.8M Scam · Washington
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Key Facts
- State: Rhode Island
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: White Collar Crime
- Source: Official Source ↗
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