Jesse Dunn, Fraud, Texas 2016

Convicted Non-Profit Head Sentenced to Prison for Disaster Relief Scam

HOUSTON, Texas - Jesse Dunn, 58, a local minister and head of several area non-profit organizations, has been ordered to federal prison for fraud in connection with a natural disaster, announced U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson.

Dunn pleaded guilty on March 17, 2016, to falsifying numerous documents to the Small Business Administration (SBA) in order to receive disaster relief funds after Hurricane Ike made landfall on September 13, 2008.

A U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes accepted the guilty plea and handed Dunn a 66-month sentence. He was further ordered to pay $1,305,800 in restitution to the SBA. Dunn will also be required to serve a term of five years of supervised release following completion of the prison term.

According to the investigation, Dunn applied for an SBA loan on two of his properties for disaster relief funds for his non-profit organization the Aldine Community Care Center. The SBA disbursed a total of $1,300,800 to him in order to fix his properties. Several of those disbursements were based on fictitious documents and/or invoices that he had submitted. A great deal of the money was used for his own personal use, such as numerous gambling trips.

The SBA and the FBI conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Suzanne Elmilady and Andrew Leuchtmann are prosecuting the case. Dunn was permitted to remain on bond and voluntarily surrender to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.

Dunn's crime, which spanned from September 2008 to December 2010, has left the SBA still owed the outstanding amount from him.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdtx/pr/non-profit-head-ordered-prison-fraud-scheme