The actor behind the Purple Energy Ranger, an iconic TV superhero within the Nineteen Nineties, was charged with fraud on Thursday.
Austin St. John, whose actual identify is Jason Lawrence Geiger, was one among 18 individuals charged in a federal indictment announced by U.S. attorney Brit Featherston in Texas.
In keeping with the indictment, St. John was allegedly a part of a “scheme to defraud lenders” and the Small Enterprise Administration’s Paycheck Safety Program. This system helped small companies impacted on account of the COVID-19 pandemic and was funded by the CARES Act.
St. John and others allegedly obtained no less than 16 loans and bought $3.5 million within the scheme, the announcement stated. If convicted, he might spend as much as 20 years in federal jail.
The indictment named Michael Hill, a co-leader of the scheme, as the one who recruited St. John and others to assemble present or new companies for PPP functions. Andrew Moran, who was additionally named as a co-leader of the scheme, allegedly assisted the “Energy Rangers” actor and others with paperwork used to misrepresent the companies.
“As soon as in receipt of the fraudulently obtained funds, the defendants didn’t use the cash as supposed, resembling to pay worker salaries, cowl fastened debt or utility funds, or proceed well being care advantages for workers,” Featherston introduced. “As an alternative, the defendants sometimes paid Hill and Moran, transferred cash to their private accounts, and spent the funds on numerous private purchases.”
St. John is thought for taking part in Jason Lee Scott within the “Mighty Morphin Energy Rangers,” the primary function of his profession, in 1993. He left the present in its second season however would return in later renditions of the favored superhero franchise.
St. John was set to look at Des Moines Con in Iowa this weekend, nevertheless, occasion organizers introduced he wouldn’t attend “because of unexpected private obligations.”
“He sends his apologies and like to all those who had been trying ahead to assembly him,” wrote Galactic Productions in a Facebook post.
St. John isn’t the one Energy Ranger to face authorized troubles. Former “Energy Rangers Wild Drive” actor Ricardo Medina Jr. was sentenced to six years in jail in 2017 after he pled responsible to voluntary manslaughter. He stated he stabbed a person, whom officers recognized as his roommate Josh Sutter, with a sword.
