A Rhode Island man awaiting sentencing for defrauding the government in a PPP loan scheme allegedly posed as a lawyer to scam inmates, then took their money to gamble and buy marijuana.
Prosecutors allege that Michael C. Moller, 42, who was just sentenced to nearly seven years in prison earlier this week for defrauding the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), continued to engage in criminal activities even while locked behind bars for his PPP fraud scheme.
According to the court filing, two other inmates at the Wyatt Detention Center reported Moller to the FBI, claiming he “defrauded them into giving him thousands of dollars in cash as payment to a purported lawyer who would assist them in their criminal and immigration cases.”
Moller allegedly posed as a lawyer named “Sam” in phone calls with his fellow inmates. One inmate claimed that Moller got his hopes up by telling him that he had posted bail for him.
The defrauded inmates claim they paid Moller’s girlfriend for their legal fees as directed by having family or friends pay her on their behalf. One inmate’s wife paid her $5,000, and the other had a friend transfer $12,000 to her.
Prosecutors said they uncovered that the money was actually spent on “marijuana, gambling, and on Moller’s commissary account.”
Moller acknowledged the scheme he pulled on the inmates and agreed to have it impact his sentencing in the PPP fraud case in exchange for no separate charges being filed.
Prosecutors asked the court to give Moller a sentence of up to 99 months in prison, citing that his behavior while in federal lockup “demonstrates that Moller is simply incapable of stopping himself from defrauding others.”
