Farmington Man Guilty of Pandemic Fraud and More

Farmington, Mo. (KFMO) - A Farmington business owner, 54 year old Christopher Carroll, is convicted of three counts of bank fraud, three counts of making false statements to a financial institution, one count of conspiracy to violate the Clean Air Act, 13 violations of the Clean Air Act and two counts of threatening a witness.

A company part owned by Carroll, Whiskey Dix Big Truck Repair LLC, was also found guilty of 16 Clean Air Act violations. According to evidence and testimony from the trial, Carroll and his partner, George Reed, submitted a false and fraudulent application for a $1.2 million Pandemic Protection program loan in April of 2020 for the time share exit company they ran, Square One Group LLC. Roughly two weeks later, Carroll began buying trucks and land to start a trucking company. Carroll and Reed then applied for loan forgiveness, falsely claiming that they’d spent the money on payroll and other permitted expenses. They then sought a second loan of more than $1.6 million. When that loan was approved, Carroll and Reed took a total of $660,000 in “owner draws” from the company, the evidence showed.

Court documents show Carroll also had emissions control equipment designed to reduce pollutants removed from Whiskey Dix’s fleet of diesel trucks. Reed, 69, pled guilty to bank fraud in September of 2022 and admitted fraudulently applying for, obtaining and using the two loans. He admitted that the company failed to pay a “significant number” of employees, despite their receipt of the loans that would have allowed them to do so.