Rhea County’s longest serving executive is headed to federal prison for fraudulently obtaining more than $650,000 in government COVID relief funding and using the cash to buy cryptocurrency.
U.S. District Judge Charles Atchley Jr. on Thursday sentenced former Rhea County Executive George Thacker, 59, to 33 months in federal prison for wire fraud. Thacker served as county executive from 2010 until his arrest earlier this year.
Thacker admitted as part of a plea deal that he applied for COVID relief funds while serving as county executive and claimed that money would be used to pay employees and keep his hotel business afloat. It was a lie, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kyle Wilson wrote in a sentencing memorandum.
“He exploited his private business and stole over $650,000 in public funds — funds that were designed to help businesses and workers suffering in the midst of a once-in-a-generation pandemic,” Wilson wrote. “He was stealing money from the same public he was elected to serve, and he was using his business as the vehicle by which to do it.”
Thacker used the COVID relief money to buy cryptocurrency and sink cash into a personal investment fund, according to court records.
“COVID-19 relief fraud is a serious crime,” said Trey Hamilton, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee. “Mr. Thacker’s scheme to defraud exploited a relief program designed to ease the...
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