The first of a trio of Texas criminals who ripped off a Pennsylvania meal program for poor children of some $4 million to buy themselves fancy cars and ritzy vacations is headed to federal prison.
U.S. District Judge Arthur Schwab on Wednesday gave George Simpson, 44, of suburban Dallas, 30 months behind bars, plus three years of probation and 100 hours of community service when he gets out.
The judge also ordered him to pay $1.5 million in restitution and forfeit another $427,791.
Simpson and his partner, Tanisha Jackson, and her daughter, Paige Jackson, all pleaded guilty in May to the massive fraud scheme that preyed on low-income children.
Simpson and Tanisha are romantic partners. Paige is from Dallas, too, but was living in Memphis.
The trio created a fake nonprofit called "Helping Others in Need" and set up an office in Sharpsburg, where they defrauded federal low-income meal programs established by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. They took money to distribute meals in Pennsylvania but didn't deliver meals, instead taking the money for themselves.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Olshan said Simpson's conduct was egregious, particularly since the three had been barred before from food programs in other states.
"This was a crime born of nothing more than greed — the desire to make a quick buck at the expense of critical government programs," he said in court papers. "And while Tanisha Jackson played a more central role in the fraud scheme — having brought her own daughter, Paige Jackson, into the fold as a co-conspirator — Simpson’s conduct was hardly the result of bad romantic luck, as he argues in his sentencing memorandum."
Mr. Olshan said Simpson was "literally in the driver's seat" in connection to the fraud in that he and Tanisha used stolen government money to buy a "fleet of luxury vehicles: a Bentley, two Land Rovers, two Maseratis, two Mercedes, a Hummer and a Porsche."
All of those vehicles will become the property of the U.S. government.
A federal grand jury charged the three last year with mail and wire fraud conspiracy and money-laundering after an investigation by the FBI, the IRS and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The three set up Helping Others in Need in Texas and enrolled it as a sponsor in the Child and Adult Care Feeding Program and the Summer Food Service Program, both funded by the USDA for Pennsylvania children.
Paige traveled to Pittsburgh and established an office in Sharpsburg while her mom and Simpson stayed home in Dallas to administer the fraud and spend stolen money.
Between 2015 and 2019, the group submitted fake enrollment data for HOIN to the state. Simpson and Tanisha also used fake names for themselves because they'd been barred from similar programs elsewhere and wanted to hide who they are. They both lied about their pasts, too.
The group submitted bogus claims for reimbursement and inflated the number of meals served or didn't serve any meals at all. Sometimes they said they had served meals when they weren’t even open.
The trio presented the state with fake documents in regard to reviews of the program and at times Tanisha pretended to be her daughter in dealing with the state Department of Education.
In addition to buying the luxury cars, Simpson and the others used the HOIN bank accounts as their own ATM, withdrawing cash in amounts more than $10,000 at a time for a total of $265,000.
They also took trips to places like Cancun, paid $19,000 for Tanisha's dental work, and bought all manner of high-end merchandise from Gucci and Louis Vuitton. In addition, Simpson used $13,000 in government money to rent music studios in Atlanta as an aspiring music entrepreneur.
The Jacksons are awaiting sentencing.
First Published: September 21, 2022, 7:37 p.m.
