By Todd Karpovich
Baltimore Sun
(TNS)
A Gaithersburg, MD, accountant was sentenced to three years in federal prison for participating in a conspiracy to commit wire fraud targeting financial institutions, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Maryland announced.
Harold Dotson, 54, was also sentenced to three years of supervised release, including six months of home confinement, and ordered to pay $24.8 million in restitution for submitting fraudulent CARES Act loan applications.
Prosecutors said Dotson, the owner of H&M Tax Service LLC, used his position as an accountant and tax preparer to submit fraudulent applications for federal COVID-19 relief loans, including Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loans.
Between April 2020 and January 2022, Dotson conspired with others to file more than $24 million in fraudulent loan applications, falsely inflating businesses’ payroll costs, number of employees, and revenue, prosecutors said. He also created fake IRS tax forms to support the applications, according to the charging documents.
Dotson collected between 2% and 27% of the loan proceeds from his co-conspirators, receiving more than $828,000, which he spent largely on gambling at casinos in Maryland and Las Vegas, prosecutors said.
His schemes resulted in more than 115 fraudulent PPP loans totaling over $21 million, in addition to more than $3.5 million in fraudulent EIDL applications, according to charging documents.
One of his main co-conspirators, Ahmed Sary of Brooklyn, Maryland, was sentenced in June to seven years in prison, according to court documents.
Attorneys for Dotson and Sary could not be reached for comment.
The case was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland as part of a Justice Department strike force targeting large-scale COVID-19 fraud.
Photo credit: Michał Chodyra/iStock
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©2025 Baltimore Sun. Visit baltimoresun.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency LLC.
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