Familiar Face In Local Politics Defrauded COVID Relief, Food Workers

MOUNT VERNON, NY — A federal jury has convicted a Westchester politician of defrauding restaurant employees and a federal COVID-19 relief program.

Derickson Lawrence, a Mount Vernon political figure, is guilty of charges of wire and mail fraud.

Lawrence, 67, was the CEO and sole owner of MarketView Resources, a company that provided third-party payroll services. According to court records, MarketView had only one significant client, a Virginia Beach company that owned restaurant franchises in the mid-Atlantic region. The Virginia Beach company regularly transferred payroll money to a bank account controlled by Lawrence to pay the salaries of its employees who elected to receive their wages via debit card.

From March 2017 through October 2019, Lawrence wired approximately $230,000 from the bank account with the employees' wages to his brokerage account, most of which he lost through risky, speculative options trading. Lawrence also used the restaurant workers' wages to pay debit cards he gave to himself, his own employees and family members.

As early as December 2018, on several occasions, there was not enough money left to cover the transactions of employees who used their debit cards to withdraw their pay. The financial services company that processed those transactions for MarketView covered nearly $90,000 until they terminated their relationship with Lawrence in September 2019. On Sept. 25, 2019, when the paycards were shut off, MarketView's own records showed an available balance to cardholders of more than $465,000, while the bank account only contained $2,400.

In addition to defrauding his client, Lawrence also defrauded the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), a COVID-19 relief program under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. The PPP program was intended to provide loans backed by the Small Business Administration to certain businesses, nonprofit organizations, and other entities to help them retain their employees or stay afloat during the pandemic. In April 2020, Lawrence submitted a PPP loan application that falsely stated he had two employees and paid over $10,000 in monthly wages. Lawrence falsely portrayed MarketView’s 2020 payroll by using an altered bank statement that actually reflected activity from February 2016. Lawrence received a PPP loan of $26,250, which he also used for options trading.

Lawrence faces 20 years in prison on each of the 11 counts when sentenced on July 19.