A Classically Vermont Way To Rip Off The Government

Alpacas are cute, and the Vermont farms they live on are lovely,
except in instances where the farms are acquired through
pandemic loan fraud, as prosecutors allege in 
one Vermont case.

The Federal Paycheck Protection Program was meant to keep businesses afloat during the pandemic as a way to preserve employment through the crisis.  

It program was a big help, and it saved a lot of butts.

However, as with everything else, there are a few cheaters involved, and now prosecutors are starting to poke around nabbing people who benefitted illegally.

Among the people caught in this net is somebody who allegedly cheated to get this money in what I consider an only-in-Vermont way.

He used the money to buy alpacas.

Anyway, that's what prosecutors are saying about Dana McIntyre, 57, of Grafton, Vermont. He's charged with wire fraud and money laundering because he's alleged to have used some of the PPP money to buy alpacas for a farm in Vermont. 

He was supposed to use the money to preserve employment at the pizza parlors he owns in Massachusetts.  

His PPP loan application included a falsified tax form and claimed the pizza shops had 50 employees, when it had fewer than 10, prosecutors said. 

Furthermore, according to the Associated Press:

"After receiving the loan, he sold the pizza shop and used the money to purchase and upgrade a farm in Vermont and buy several alpacas, authorities said. He also bought at least two vehicles - including a 1950 Hudson - and weekly airtime for a cryptocurrency-themed radio show that he hosted, prosecutors said." 

 McIntyre sounds like a lot of people who decided to move to the relative safety of Vermont during the pandemic and start new lives. Most people who did this were above board and didn't harm anybody. Unless you count all those essays these new Vermonters wrote saying the move was worth it, even if the Green Mountain State can be kind of boring, with iffy Internet access. At least there's a lot of great microbreweries! 

We're unsure of what's to become of the alpacas in this fiasco.  Or the 1950 Hudson, for that matter.  But I guess if McIntyre is guilty of this, he shouldn't have thought twice huh.