LI theme park owner who bought Nantucket home with $3.2M from COVID fraud gets prison

NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – A businessman who owns a restaurant and theme park was sentenced to prison on Tuesday for receiving over $3 million in COVID-19 payment fraud, according to prosecutors.

Donald Finley, 61, a Locust Valley businessman and owner of the now-defunct Jekyll & Hyde theme restaurant in Manhattan and the Bayville Adventure Park on Long Island, was sentenced to two years in prison, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace announced.

Finley pleaded guilty last year to disaster relief fraud and wire fraud in connection to receiving $3.2 million in small business loans under the Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program, according to the indictment.

“Finley viewed the deadly pandemic that was gripping the nation as a way to steal millions of dollars in COVID-19 relief funds that he used to purchase a vacation home in Nantucket,” Peace said.  “Today the defendant learned the price to pay for such a shameful crime is a loss of his freedom and full restitution for the victims of his scam.”

Between March 2020 and March 2021, Finley fraudulently received at least 29 PPP and EIDLP loans, totaling nearly $3.2 million, on behalf of his businesses, according to prosecutors.

An investigation found that the applications of Finley had false information, fake financial data and fabricated supporting documentation, according to court documents.

After the application and funds were approved, Finley sent the money through more than 30 bank accounts to “prevent tracing of the proceeds,” according to court documents.

Finely used the money to purchase real estate property in Nantucket, Massachusetts in February 2021, according to prosecutors.

Aside from the prison sentence, Finley paid in full $3.2 million in restitution and was ordered to pay a $15,000 fine and complete 500 hours of community service.