A person presenting himself as an Orthodox monk — and who had taken a “vow of poverty” — is accused of manipulating the COVID reduction grant system to make off with practically $3.6 million, which the feds say he spent on luxe gadgets like $40,000 in Swiss watches.
“Today, we arrested a purported Orthodox Christian monk and his attorney for misdirecting millions of dollars in federal emergency assistance from businesses struggling to survive, to line their own pockets for their own personal enrichment,” mentioned Joseph Bonavolonta, the particular agent accountable for the FBI’s Boston workplace. “We believe they clearly knew that what they were doing was wrong, but they did it anyway.”
Brian Andrew Bushell, 47, and legal professional Tracey M.A. Stockton, 64, had been arrested at their residence, the Annunciation House, in Marblehead and appeared in federal court docket in Boston Thursday on fees of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and illegal financial transactions.
Bushell offered himself as “Father” and “Rev. Fr.” Bushell or Andrew — which seems to be his most well-liked identify — and has mentioned that he skilled at a monastery on Mount Athos in Greece, in accordance with an FBI affidavit filed within the case.
Publications just like the Financial Times and the Boston Globe have glowing profiles reiterating his tales of buying and selling a lifetime of enterprise consulting for, first, struggle correspondence for The Economist after which again to enterprise the place he claimed he managed an funding fund of greater than $2 billion earlier than throwing himself headlong into the ecclesiastical life.
But to these truly a part of the Orthox church buildings working within the space, he’s a complete unknown.
A consultant of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America informed the AP that Bushell shouldn’t be a priest or a monk of their church, and a consultant of the Orthodox Church in America’s New England Diocese additionally mentioned Bushell has no affiliation with their church.
“He’s not affiliated with the Diocese in New England,” Father John Kreta, the chancellor of the New England Diocese, informed the Herald. “I have never met him and had never heard the name before.”
As the FT story tells, Bushell “joined a monastery on Athos, and learned how to separate sea salt from seawater” and had discovered brewing from European monastic orders. It’s the proper background for the organizations he began on Marblehead with purported Orthodox connections: along with the couple’s residence — which the feds described as “a purported residence for clergy — he ran the “monastic brewery” Marblehead Brewing Co. and the Marblehead Salt Co., a craft saltern.
Then there’s the St. Paul’s Foundation, a charitable group of types; and the Shrine of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, Patron of Sailors, Brewers & Repentant Thieves.
None of those had any affiliation to the Orthodox Church in America, Kreta mentioned.
These numerous organizations are on the coronary heart of the federal allegations towards the Marblehead couple. When the pandemic rolled round, the feds say, the couple began submitting false functions for the varied reduction funds, ultimately raking up practically $3.6 million from round April 2020 to August 2022.
“Upon receiving (Economic Injury Disaster Loans) and (Paycheck Protection Program) funds, Bushell and Stockton used those funds on expenses that would not have been permitted under either program, even had the funds been obtained lawfully,” the U.S. Attorney’s workplace wrote in a quick on the allegations.
An electronic mail to a consultant of The Economist in search of data on any relationship previous or current to Bushell was not returned by press time.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”