A Baton Rouge man has been convicted by a federal jury on charges of wire fraud and engaging in unlawful monetary transactions. Oscar Hills, IV, age 53, was found guilty after a three-day trial before U.S. District Court Judge Brian A. Jackson. The announcement was made by Acting United States Attorney Ellison C. Travis.
According to evidence presented at trial, between March 2020 and May 2020, Hills submitted multiple fraudulent loan applications under federal COVID-19 relief programs created by the CARES Act. One application was filed under the name Bootstate Financial Group as part of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Hills falsely claimed that Bootstate had 40 employees and an average monthly payroll exceeding $270,000. Based on these misrepresentations, a lender approved the application and deposited $675,272 into an account controlled by Hills. Shortly after receiving the funds, he used $75,500 to purchase a Dodge Viper.
Another fraudulent application was submitted under the name Baton Rouge Teen Summit for the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program. In this instance, Hills claimed the organization had 25 employees and annual operating expenses over $184,000—statements that were not true. The Small Business Administration approved the application and disbursed $159,900 to an account owned by Hills. He later used $23,272 from these funds to pay eleven years’ worth of unpaid property taxes on his home.
The trial also revealed that this is not Hills’s first conviction for wire fraud in the Middle District of Louisiana. On April 26, 2010, he pled guilty to four counts of wire fraud related to schemes involving State Farm, Ascension Credit Union, and Eagle Louisiana Federal Credit Union. He was sentenced in March 2011 to serve 33 months in prison and ordered to pay more than $89,000 in restitution.
For his recent convictions on two counts each of wire fraud and unlawful monetary transactions, Hills faces up to thirty years in prison per count of wire fraud with fines up to $1 million per count as well as supervised release; for each money laundering count he could receive up to ten years imprisonment and fines up to $250,000.
The case was investigated by the United States Secret Service and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Kristen L. Craig and John B. Casey.
Individuals with information about potential pandemic-related fraud can contact the Justice Department’s National Center for Disaster Fraud via its hotline or web complaint form at www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.
