Alicia Ayers
Andrea Ayers
Mamaroneck Library Business Manager Gets Probation for Theft of $40,000, budget error for library of $1.4 Million: Not Enough?
Alicia Ayers and Andrea Ayers Were Convicted for Submitting More Than 300 Fraudulent Applications for U.S. Small Business Administration Economic Injury Disaster Loans
Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that ALICIA AYERS and ANDREA AYERS were sentenced today to two years in prison followed by six months of home confinement and 42 months in prison, respectively, for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and making false statements in connection with a scheme to defraud the U.S. Small Business Administration (“SBA”), resulting in a loss to the SBA of approximately $1.7 million. ALICIA AYERS and ANDREA AYERS previously pled guilty before U.S. District Judge Nelson S. Román, who imposed today’s sentences.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “These defendants stole from a taxpayer-funded program intended to help small businesses that were in desperate need of assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic. As their convictions and sentences reflect, my Office is determined to continue to work to bring to justice those who exploit and defraud government programs during a national emergency. I thank the FBI and the career prosecutors of this Office for their outstanding work investigating and prosecuting this scheme.”
According to the Indictment, other public filings, and statements made in court:
The SBA is a federal agency of the Executive Branch that administers assistance to American small businesses. This assistance includes making direct loans to applicants through the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (“EIDL”) Program. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress expanded the SBA’s EIDL Program to provide small businesses with low-interest loans of up to $2 million prior to in or about May 2020 and up to $150,000 beginning in or about May 2020 in order to provide vital economic support to help overcome the loss of revenue small businesses were experiencing due to COVID-19. Applicants seeking a loan under the EIDL program were also permitted to request and receive an advance of approximately $1,000 per employee, for an amount up to $10,000, which the SBA generally provided while the loan application was pending.
In June and July 2020, ALICIA AYERS and her mother, ANDREA AYERS, a former Code Enforcement Officer for the City of Mount Vernon Police Department, used the identities of approximately 300 other individuals (the “Applicants”) to submit approximately 315 online applications to the SBA, seeking over $3 million of funds through the SBA’s EIDL Program (the “EIDL Applications”). In connection with the EIDL Applications, ALICIA AYERS and ANDREA AYERS falsely represented to the SBA that the applicants were the owners of businesses with 10 or more employees. However, that was a lie – as ALICIA AYERS and ANDREA AYERS knew, the applicants did not employ the number of people reported, and the majority of the applicants did not own businesses or have any employees. Based on the fraudulent EIDL Applications, the SBA made advance payments of approximately $1,690,000 to the applicants, who then kicked back a portion of the advance payments to ALICIA AYERS and ANDREA AYERS.
In addition to the prison terms, ALICIA AYERS, 37, and ANDREA AYERS, 57, both of Mount Vernon, New York, were each sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay forfeiture in the amount of $1,690,000 and to pay restitution to the SBA in the amount of $1,690,000.
Mr. Williams praised the outstanding investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The case is being prosecuted by the Office’s White Plains Division. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jeffrey C. Coffman and Courtney L. Heavey are in charge of the prosecution.
The Ayers’ had requested no jail time. Some are wondering if the sentences were too harsh.
In Mamaroneck, Mary Soto, the Business Manager for the Mamaroneck public library, pled guilty to stealing over $40,000. Soto, 62, admitted the thefts occurred over several years, and pled guilty to grand larceny.
Soto pled guilty after being told that she would receive 3 years probation and restitution of the $43,900.
More important to the residents and taxpayers of Mamaroneck was the fact that Soto, who had almost complete control over the Library’s finances and books, underrepresented the operating funds in the Library budget by $1.4 Million, over a two year period, (2022 and 2023).
A statement from the Mamaroneck Library Board of Trustees included, “For many years, Mary Soto functioned as the Mamaroneck Public Library’s Business Manager. She was in charge of ensuring that the financial books and statements were properly maintained and reported.
“Instead, she presented false records to the Boards of Trustees, the Treasurers, Library Directors, and
the public representing that the Library had a multi-million dollar fund balance that did not actually exist.
The data provided to the Boards of Trustees by the Business Manager, the Library Directors and the
Board Treasurer was trusted but not verified. In February, 2023, the current Board of Trustees and
Library Director finally learned of the deception and that the fund balance did not exist; The Board
immediately placed Ms. Soto on leave.
There were years when the Library did not raise taxes believing these funds existed. Because the
library’s budget for the past two years was balanced utilizing the misreported fund balance, the Library
found itself without $1.4 million in anticipated operating funds (577K for 2022 and $866K for 2023) that
were believed to exist.
A forensic accounting firm was hired and the situation was reported to the Village Board of Trustees and
the Village Police Department. The forensic accounting firm, while working with the Library Director and
her team, determined that in addition to misrepresenting fund balances that never existed, Mary Soto
had also been siphoning Library funds for personal use. The case was subsequently turned over to the
Westchester County DA’s Public and Law Enforcement Integrity Bureau. The results of the forensic audit
were provided to the District Attorney.
On December 14, 2023 the District Attorney arrested Mary Soto. She was arraigned on a felony charge
of Grand Larceny in the Third Degree before Judge Christie L. Derrico in Mamaroneck Village Court for
the theft of $44,769.
The Library has borrowed the $1.4 Million through a Tax Anticipation Note (TAN) to stay open, and has implemented changes to their financial oversight.
Some believe that the probation to be given to Soto is too lenient.
