ORLANDO, Fla. — Months after being voted out of office, former State Representative Carolina Amesty (R-Windermere) has been charged with federal crimes related to a pandemic-era relief program.
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United States Attorney Roger Handberg announced a criminal complaint Friday charging Amesty with two counts of theft of government property.
According to the filing, Amesty and a relative received more than $500,000 across 15 COVID-19 disaster loans, which were a part of the March 2020 CARES Act given to small businesses to offset the cost of the economic shutdown and maintain payroll.
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The loans Amesty received or was approved for included $150,000 to her family’s school, Central Christian University and tens of thousands of dollars toward her family’s restaurants and Amesty’s nonprofit.
Prosecutors say Amesty falsified the gross revenues connected to many of these ventures when applying for the loans, and they were unable to find evidence to support the number of employees Amesty submitted in her applications.
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“Notably, several of the entities for which applications were submitted did not even open the bank account provided on their application until after the pandemic had started,” the charging document claimed.
In two cases, prosecutors say Amesty opened bank accounts the day before or on the day she applied for the loan, including the $84,500 approved for the Carolina Amesty Foundation.
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Investigators said they visited another location Amesty applied for, where she listed the address as Dinocar Auto Sales. However, they said a worker for a construction company that operated at the address she gave had never heard of the car dealership, outside of occasionally receiving mail addressed to it, and a records search showed the dealership didn’t have a license to operate.
Prosecutors said Amesty spent more than ten thousand dollars of the loan money on personal expenses.
The charges stem specifically from the loans to the Carolina Amesty Foundation and Dinocar Auto Sales, which totaled $122,000. Each charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, for a total of 20 if Amesty is convicted.
A request to Amesty for comment was not returned.
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