In October 2022, in his own separate case (No. 22-cr-80157), the attorney who was the company’s Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel signed a stipulated factual basis and pleaded guilty. A stipulated factual basis is a document a person signs agreeing that the stated facts are true. This is what the attorney agreed to.
Who he was
“National Financial Holdings Technology LLC, was a Delaware limited liability company with a registered address in Wilmington, Delaware. [The attorney] was the Chief Operating Officer of National Financial Holdings Technology LLC.”
He was also, as the Securities and Exchange Commission separately recorded, the chief legal officer of the related Florida company, and a member of the Florida Bar admitted in 2002.
The bank loan application
This paragraph concerns the Paycheck Protection Program application to First Home Bank on 3 April 2020. It identifies the attorney as the person who submitted it.
“On April 3, 2020, [the attorney] submitted and caused to be submitted via wire a PPP loan application on behalf of National Financial Holding, Inc., with a listed address of 4521 PGA Blvd., Suite 226, Palm Beach Gardens, FL. This application sought approximately $376,356.03 in PPP funds based on purported average month payroll of $150,542.41 and represented that the entity employed 20 employees. The certificate of completion of the application was submitted from an IP address which originated in Palm Beach Gardens. [The attorney] executed the loan agreement as guarantor.”
The falsified bank statements
The same paragraph continues. It is the most direct sentence in the document.
“Among the documents provided by [the attorney] in support of the PPP loan were BB&T (now Truist) bank statements for account ending in 5368, which were falsified, in that, the provided bank statements listed National Financial Holdings, Inc, as the account holder, when in truth and in fact, the account holder was NFH Florida LLC dba Finova LLC. Further, the bank provided statements reflect different payroll line amounts and totals significantly less than the inflated payroll line amounts and totals reflected the bank statements provided by [the attorney].”
He submitted the application. He signed as guarantor. He provided the falsified bank statements. He agreed to all of it in writing, under his own signature, in October 2022.
Two more applications he admitted submitting
The same signed document records two further PPP applications. Paragraph 9: on April 17, 2020 the attorney submitted and caused to be submitted a PPP application on behalf of NFH Florida LLC, seeking approximately $376,400, and provided the supporting documents. It was funded by Truist Bank. Paragraph 11: on April 20, 2020 he submitted and caused to be submitted a PPP application on behalf of National Financial Holdings Technology LLC, seeking approximately $349,955. It was funded by Flagler Bank.
“[The attorney] submitted the PPP application as General Counsel.”
Why this matters
Three months later, in January 2023, the trustee in a related civil case was deposed. She had filed a sworn declaration with the court asserting that Keough was involved in submitting false bank statements to First Home Bank. Asked about it under oath, she agreed her assertion had been “based upon an assumption instead of evidence.”
By then the man who had actually provided those statements had already signed a document saying so.
The trustee’s deposition is set out here.
Source: Stipulated Factual Basis, the attorney’s separate case, No. 22-cr-80157 (S.D. Fla.), docket entry 12, entered 11 October 2022, seven pages. Quotations are verbatim from the filed document. Where it names the attorney, the name has been replaced with [the attorney] in square brackets. Paragraphs of the document that refer to an unnamed co-conspirator are not quoted here.
Full document on CourtListener (docket entry 12).