Business owner steals third-party employees’ wages, claims fraudulent COVID-19 benefits

Kenzie Finch
·2 min read
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NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — A man from New York was convicted by a jury in Norfolk for wire and mail fraud after overusing employee’s wages and claiming false COVID-19 relief, a release states.

Derickson Lawrence, 67, was the owner of MarketView Resources, Inc., a company that provided third-party payroll services. The company’s main client was a Virginia Beach company that owned a restaurant franchise in the mid-Atlantic.

Lawrence’s company was responsible for paying the salaries of the restaurants employees after it was wired to a bank account from the Virginia Beach business, a release states. However, From March 2017-October 2019, Lawrence wired around $230,000 from the bank account with the employees’ wages to his brokerage account. He then lost most of the money through risky trading.

Lawrence also used the restaurant workers’ wages to pay debit cards he gave to himself, his own employee and family members. In December 2018, there wasn’t enough in the bank to cover the employee’s usage of their debit cards, a release states. This means employees would see a higher available balance than what was actually in the bank.

The financial services company that processed those transactions for MarketView covered nearly $90,000 until they terminated their relationship with Lawrence in September 2019. On Sept. 25, 2019, when the cards were shut off, MarketView’s own records showed an available balance to cardholders of more than $465,000, while the bank account only contained $2,400, a release states.

Lawrence also defrauded a COVID-19 relief program known as the Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP. The program was intended to provide loans to certain small businesses and nonprofits during the pandemic.

In April 2020, Lawrence submitted a PPP loan application that falsely stated he had two employees and paid over $10,000 in monthly wages. Lawrence falsely portrayed MarketView’s 2020 payroll by using an altered bank statement that actually reflected activity from February 2016. Lawrence received a PPP loan of $26,250, which he used for options trading.

Lawrence faces 20 years in prison on each of the 11 counts when sentenced on July 19.

Check with WAVY.com for more updates.

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