Man gets four years to think about his Grand Prix, Covid-19, ice-rink scamming ways

John Casey, best known locally as the CFO of the failed Seaport Grand Prix cooked up after the failed Olympics bid, was sentenced today to four years in federal prison for a variety of frauds and deceptions related to financing for the Grand Prix and for a Peabody ice rink, and for bogus Covid-19 loan applications he made, some after he was indicted for the earlier crimes.

Casey, 58, most recently of Ipswich, was also ordered to pay $1,998,097 in restitution and ordered to forfeit $1,570,399 at his sentencing in US District Court in Boston, the US Attorney's office reports.

Authorities say he came by the $900,000 he earned as Grand Prix CFO honestly, but that he failed to report it on his income-tax returns.

He was indicted in September, 2020. According to the US Attorney's office:

In January 2021, while awaiting trial for the financing fraud scheme, Casey submitted an application for a $70,000 pandemic-related relief grant to the Massachusetts Growth Capital Corporation containing false information about the operating expenses of a company that was not in business in 2019 or 2020. Between April 2020 and April 2021, approximately $676,552 in COVID-19 relief funds was deposited into bank accounts controlled by Casey, and he used the vast majority of the funds for personal expenses, including a three-carat diamond ring, a six-month membership to Match.com, private school tuition, residential rent payments, living expenses, payments on personal credit card accounts, restaurant meals, car payments and luxury hotel stays.