A 75-year-old Florida CPA has pleaded guilty to conspiracy for his role in submitting false documents to obtain federal relief money intended for farmers.
Thomas Unsworth entered the plea on Jan. 27, according to documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. He pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States.
Prosecutors alleged Unsworth “did knowingly and willfully combine, conspire, confederate and agree with others … to make a false statement to the Secretary of Agriculture,” the documents stated.
Court documents said such moves occurred around May 2020 and continued until at least September 2020. At the time, Unsworth was working as a CPA for Alfie Oakes, a Florida grocery magnate and owner of Oakes Farms Food & Distribution Services. Court documents refer to Oakes as “Co-conspirator 1.” As of the time of Unsworth’s plea, Oakes had not been charged and wasn’t named in the plea agreement.
Court documents also refer to “Co-conspirator 2,” a New Jersey businessman and “longtime friend” of Oakes. The second co-conspirator owned a “large produce wholesale-and-distribution company, as well as a farming operation, in New Jersey,” according to the documents.
Prosecutors said Unsworth signed off on forms fraudulently showing the two co-conspirators were eligible for federal COVID-19 relief money for farmers.
Unsworth is also alleged to have signed off on similar forms for the same co-conspirators to obtain funds through a USDA emergency relief program for farmers. Court documents said this occurred around September 2022 through at least May 2024.
In court, Assistant U.S. Attorney Chelsey Hanson said that conspirators received at least $2 million from such efforts, although the government hasn’t yet totaled that figure, Florida business magazine Gulfshore Business reported. Some businesses that had been set up to receive federal funds have since been dissolved, the magazine reported.
Unsworth’s defense attorney told Gulfshore Business that the accountant “made no money off of this, zero. He did it as a friend.”
Unsworth hasn’t yet been sentenced, but the charges carry a maximum of five years in federal prison, plus a fine, according to Gulfshore Business.
