Non-Profit Head Ordered to Prison in Fraud Scheme

HOUSTON – A local minister and head of several area non-profit organizations has been ordered to federal prison for fraud in connection with a natural disaster, announced U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson. Jesse Dunn, 58, of Houston, pleaded guilty March 17, 2016.

Today, U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes, who accepted the guilty plea, handed Dunn a 66-month sentence. He was further ordered to pay $1,305,800 in restitution to the Small Business Administration (SBA). Dunn will also be required to serve a term of five years of supervised release following completion of the prison term.

From about September 2008 to about December 2010, Dunn falsified numerous documents to the SBA in order to receive disaster relief funds. Hurricane Ike made landfall on Sept. 13, 2008. Shortly thereafter, Dunn applied for an SBA loan on two of his properties for disaster relief funds for his non-profit organization the Aldine Community Care Center. The SBA disbursed a total of $1,300,800 to him in order to fix his properties. Several of those disbursements were based on fictitious documents and/or invoices that he had submitted. A great deal of the money was used for his own personal use, such as numerous gambling trips. To this day, the SBA is still owed the outstanding amount from Dunn. 

Dunn was permitted to remain on bond and voluntarily surrender to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.

The SBA and the FBI conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Suzanne Elmilady and Andrew Leuchtmann are prosecuting the case.