According to court documents, Read falsified documents to apply for Small Business Administration loans intended to help support businesses struggling from the COVID-19 pandemic. Read also applied for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance on behalf of himself and others in multiple states despite being ineligible for the funds.
As part of his sentence, the federal court of the Western District of Arkansas ordered Read to pay $277,872 in restitution for fraudulently obtaining the funds.
Read’s wife, 43-year-old Crystal Payne, on Monday was sentenced to five years probation, a $5,000 fine and ordered to pay $59,130 in restitution for her role in the scheme.
Read, who operates a weather monitoring and forecasting Facebook page under the name “Snowbirdbob,” will report to prison on Nov. 4 to begin his sentence. On Tuesday morning, Read posted that he would be stepping away from the Facebook page temporarily for several days “to get my head together.”
He wrote in part, “Losing five years of my life is kinda devastating to my brain and it’s going to take a few days to sink in … Please don’t feel sorry for me. I did the crime and now I do the time. It’s 100% my fault. I love you all and God bless you.”
Another individual will continue to report weather predictions while Read serves his sentence, he said in a post Tuesday afternoon.
David Clay Fowlkes, acting U.S. Attorney for the state’s Western District, says, “Our office will continue to vigorously pursue criminals such as Mr. Read and Mrs. Payne. This couple executed a scheme to steal money that was intended to help those who were truly in need.”
Christopher Artemis, special agent in charge for the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigations division, says, “Our agents will continue to pursue fake business owners such as Mr. Read — a.k.a. ‘Snowbird Bob’ — who chose to steal funds intended for small business owners crippled by this global pandemic.”
The case was investigated by IRS-Criminal Investigations, the FBI, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration and the Small Business Administration’s Office of the Inspector General.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Hunter Bridges prosecuted the case for the United States.
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