Pembroke Man Pleads Guilty for Misusing CARES Act Funds to Purchase a Golf Course

Pembroke Man Pleads Guilty for Misusing CARES Act Funds to Purchase a Golf Course

CONCORD – A Pembroke man pleaded guilty on October 3, 2025, for fraudulently obtaining over $1 million of CARES Act funds from the United States government, U.S. Attorney Erin Creegan announces.

Michael Kirouac, 38, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud.  U.S. District Judge Joseph Laplante scheduled sentencing for January 15, 2026.

Kirouac owned or controlled four companies: HK Manchester, HK Loudon, HK Hudson, and HK Pelham.  He applied for and obtained over $1 million worth of Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDLs) for the companies.  Kirouac certified that he would use the loan proceeds solely as working capital and would not use the funds for personal expenses or to relocate the businesses from one location to another.

Beginning in 2021, Kirouac was looking to purchase a golf course.  He was unable to obtain financing from banks and private lenders and instead obtained EIDLs on behalf of HK Manchester and HK Loudon. Kirouac used approximately $600,000 of EIDL funds intended for HK Manchester and HK Loudon to help purchase the Angus Lea Golf Course in Hillsborough, New Hampshire.  Kirouac also misused EIDL funds he obtained for HK Pelham.

Separately, Kirouac obtained a $260,500 EIDL for HK Hudson.  However, Kirouac had already agreed to sell HK Hudson to a third party when he signed for the loan.  Kirouac did not disclose that fact to the SBA.

The charge of wire fraud provides for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss, whichever is greater. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case.

The Department of Veterans Affairs’ Office of the Inspector General, IRS Criminal Investigations, and SBA’s Office of the Inspector General led the investigation.   The Department of Justice’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section provided valuable assistance.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander S. Chen is prosecuting the case.

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During the early part of the coronavirus pandemic, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.  The CARES Act included multiple relief provisions to help the millions of Americans and many small businesses adversely affected by the pandemic, including the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).  Private lenders could participate in the PPP.  The loans, which were supposed to be used for payroll, were fully guaranteed by the government.  If borrowers used the PPP loans for payroll and other approved expenses as intended, they could apply for loan forgiveness.  The CARES Act also opened up the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program.  As with PPP loans, EIDL loans were supposed to be used for payroll and other business expenses such as rent and mortgage.

On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. The Task Force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with administering relief programs to prevent fraud by, among other methods, augmenting and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts. For more information on the Department’s response to the pandemic, please visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus

Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at: https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.