HOUSTON — A College Station man has been sentenced to 97 months--about eight years--in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud charges, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
William Dexter Lucas, 61, pleaded guilty to the charges on Dec. 8, 2022 and was released on bond, but was taken into federal custody on Thursday, and will later be transferred to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility.
According to officials, he stole money from the Payroll Protection Plan and various car dealerships by faking forms to obtain car loans. Lucas did this while posing as a "pastor" of a church--"Jesus Survives Ministry"--that didn't have a physical location and existed only on paper.
He also admitted that he committed the crimes alongside others from 2017 to 2020, and that the "Jesus Survives Ministry" church that he claimed to be a part of his schemes to defraud businesses and the government.
Among the fraud crimes he was accused of included applying for a $50,000 PPP loan to cover payroll needs for his "Jesus Survives Ministry" and applying for multiple car loans by using one of about 20 different aliases to fill out and submit information for the loans. Authorities say that in total, over $400,000 was reported in losses.
When he was later investigated by authorities, Lucas attempted to cover what he had done up by claiming his identity had been stolen, even filing claims with the Federal Trade Commission.
“William Dexter Lucas, a con man who worked several schemes at once, cloaked himself in the robes of a fake church so he could defraud local businesses and steal from taxpayers,” said U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani. “And he stole not to give to the poor, but to line his own pockets with money meant to help those struggling with the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Thankfully the law has caught up to William Lucas, giving have ample time to think over his past sins as he sits in a prison cell.”
Once he has served his prison sentence, Lucas will have to undergo five years of supervised release, and pay over $280,000 in restitution to the Small Business Administration (SBA) and the car dealerships he defrauded.
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