Martin County Man Pleads Guilty To Wire Fraud And Money Laundering

Ocala, Florida – United States Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe announces that Chason Reed Peck (37, Palm City) has pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and three counts of money laundering. Peck faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison on the wire fraud charge and up to 10 years’ imprisonment on each of the money laundering counts. As part of his guilty plea, Peck has agreed to forfeit $300,000, which are funds traceable as proceeds of the offenses. A sentencing date has not yet been set.

According to the plea agreement, on February 3, 2017, Peck applied for and received business financing from Deere & Company (“John Deere”). On February 16, 2020, Peck applied for a $300,000 total credit limit on his John Deere credit. Peck hand-wrote the financial application and gave it to a representative of an agricultural store in Ocala to submit on his behalf. The application, however, contained false information that greatly overstated Peck’s assets. For instance, Peck claimed his cash assets were approximately $3 million. He also claimed to have 1,500 of acres of farming land. In reality, Peck’s cash assets were approximately $6,000, and he was only farming about 60 acres. Based on the fraudulent information he submitted, Peck obtained the increased credit line along with lines of ‘liquid credit” (business loans). Peck then used the increased credit line to make three payments towards debts he already had with his employer. Those payments totaled $274,673.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Hannah Nowalk Watson.