Westcott Francis-Curley was the kind of fraudster who was willing to use any kind of identity to commit any kind of fraud. On December 13, 2024, Francis-Curley pled guilty to charges of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, following allegations of defrauding his employer, a federal disaster relief program, and his former significant other in three different and unrelated schemes.
It began in 2019, when Francis-Curley first embezzled money from his then-employer. Francis-Curley used the employer bank accounts and his employee work authorizations to purchase cloud computing resources. Upon which he resold back to the company at many times the market value and price first purchased by him using company funds. Francis-Curley was paid by his company more than $550,000 for the fraudulently purchased cloud computing resources. He was caught by his employer while attempting to obtain another half-million dollars in this scheme.
Concurrently, Francis-Curley fraudulently applied for and received nearly $100,000 from the Paycheck Protection Program. The COVID-19 loan assistance program designed to help small businesses which Francis-Curley did not own. Francis-Curley filed paperwork claiming that two companies he controlled had large payrolls that qualified for assistance. In fact, those two companies had no operations.
Finally, in October 2022, Francis-Curley applied for and obtained a credit card in the name of his former significant other. Francis-Curley used the card to make more than $1,000 in personal expenditures. While this victim faces the trials and tribulations of cleaning up the credit reports, one can’t help but think this victim really did dodge a bullet now being out of this relationship! Francis-Curley spent all his fraudulently gained proceeds and funds on personal goods and extravagant services, such as private jets.
Excellent job by the FBI in this case.
Today’s Fraud of The Day is based on article “Seattle man pleads guilty to defrauding employer, COVID relief program and former partner” published by KING-TV News on December 13, 2024.
Seattle man pleaded guilty Friday in U.S. District Court for three different fraud schemes that involved his former employer, a COVID assistance program and his former partner. Westcott Francis-Curley ran these schemes between 2019 and 2022, ultimately illegally obtaining over $600,000, federal prosecutors said.
In 2019, Francis-Curley used bank accounts of his employer to purchase cloud computing resources, then sold them back to the company at many times their market value. Prosecutors said he obtained over $550,000 and was caught while trying to steal another $500,000. He spent the money on “extravagances, such as private jets,” prosecutors said.