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COVID Scammer Who Faked His Own Suicide Gets Prison Time

David Adler Staveley applied for $543,959 in forgivable pandemic relief loans, then went to elaborate lengths to avoid being sent to prison.

The first person in the U.S. to be charged with fraud over falsifying pandemic relief loan applications—who faked his own suicide after his arrest—was sentenced on Thursday to 56 months in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release. David Adler Staveley, 54, of Andover, Massachusetts, applied for $543,959 in forgivable PPP loans, improperly claiming he owned four businesses in New England (he didn’t) and needed the money to pay employees. Staveley was charged in federal court in May 2020 for the phony applications, and three weeks later, removed his ankle monitor and staged his own death by writing suicide notes and leaving his wallet in his abandoned car. Over the next couple of months, Staveley “traveled to various states using false identities and stolen license plates,” says a news release issued by the feds. He was rearrested in Alpharetta, Georgia by U.S. Marshals in July 2020.