Northwest Arkansas man sentenced on illegal transmission of federal funds

Richard Stone has been sentenced to more than four years in a federal prison for unlawful use of federal funds related to COVID-19 pandemic relief programs, including the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).

On Feb. 20, U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Brooks sentenced Stone, of Northwest Arkansas, to 51 months in prison and ordered him to pay restitution of $725,558 on one count of operating an illegal money transmitting business.

Stone waived an indictment by a grand jury and pleaded guilty to the charge, according to a statement from the office of U.S. Attorney David Clay Fowlkes of the Western District of Arkansas.

“Stone was the president or chief officer of numerous businesses registered with the Arkansas Secretary of State, including: Partex Oman Corp., Renewable Energy Campus Arkansas Inc., Stonetek Global Corp., and Tires 2 Energy LLC. Stone also was associated with Environmental Energy & Finance Corp., a Delaware corporation. The advertised purpose of these businesses was developing technology and facilities to repurpose waste materials, such as tires, into useable fuel sources,” noted the statement.

The businesses were not registered with Arkansas as a money transmitting business.

Between November 2020 and March 2021, Stone used numerous bank accounts to receive more than $600,000 from PPP, the Economic Impact Disaster Loans (EIDL), and Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA).

“After receiving these funds, Stone immediately transferred most of the funds by wire transfer to parties in locations including Berne, Switzerland; London, England; New York, NY; Chennai, India; and Mumbai, India,” according to Fowlkes’ office.

In addition to Fowlkes’ office, other entities involved in prosecuting the case were the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Department of Labor Office of the Inspector General. Assistant U.S. Attorney Hunter Bridges prosecuted the case.