Matthew Dispensa, CARES Act Fraud, New Hampshire 2023

Hudson Man Indicted for Defrauding U.S. Taxpayers

CONCORD – Matthew Dispensa, 57, was indicted in connection with his attempt to fraudulently obtain over $1 million in CARES Act funds from the United States government, U.S. Attorney Jane E. Young announces.

Dispensa, a Hudson resident, was arrested this morning and released on conditions.

According to the charging documents, Dispensa owns and operates the Gateway Hills Heath Club in Nashua. He filed CARES Act loan applications for two different entities, Gateway Hills Health Club, Inc. (“Gateway Hills Inc.”) and Gateway Hills Health & Wellness, LLC (“Gateway Hills LLC”). Between 2020 and 2022, Dispensa applied for four Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans and two Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) for Gateway Hills Inc. and Gateway Hills LLC.

He submitted the Gateway Hills Inc. PPP applications to Millyard Bank and the Gateway Hills LLC PPP applications to a separate bank, Primary Bank. He provided the banks and the Small Business Administration (SBA) false documents, including fabricated tax documents, which inflated his purported companies’ size and payroll.

Because PPP and EIDL loan size was tied to payroll and the number of employees a company had, he was able to apply for and obtain larger loans than he was entitled to. In total, he applied for $413,850 in PPP loans and $650,000 in EIDL funds.

Dispensa also misused at least some of the loan proceeds. For example, he obtained a $146,650 PPP loan for Gateway Hills Inc. He wired $100,000 of the proceeds to a personal brokerage account to purchase stock, including Tesla stock.

The charge of bank fraud provides for a sentence of up to 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million. The charge of attempted wire fraud provides for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss, whichever is greater. The charge of money laundering provides for a sentence of up to 10 years in prison and a fine of twice the amount of the criminally derived property involved in the transaction.

Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case.

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration and U.S. Postal Inspection Service led the investigation. Valuable assistance was provided by the Hudson Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander S. Chen is prosecuting the case.

The details contained in the charging documents are allegations. The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

During the early part of the coronavirus pandemic, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. The CARES Act included multiple relief provisions to help the millions of Americans and many small businesses adversely affected by the pandemic, including the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).