Former Irmo lawyer pleads guilty to stealing more than $1.5 million in COVID relief money
A former Irmo attorney was sentenced to federal prison after pleading guilty to stealing more than $1 million in COVID relief funds.
Ray Allen Lord was sentenced to 18 months in prison, ordered to forfeit $1.6 million and pay a $100,000 fine, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Brook Andrews told The State Tuesday.
Lord, 56, provided false information on PPP loans and took $1,591,700 in Small Business Administration funds from the government, court records show.
“He is extremely remorseful for his actions and has made full restitution in the amount of $1,391,685.70,” attorney Alexandra Benevento, of Columbia’s Strom Law Firm, said in a memorandum to the court prior to sentencing.
On Oct. 17, 2022, Lord — a former volunteer coroner’s deputy and former deputy with the Richland County Sheriff’s Department who graduated top of his class from the criminal justice academy — pleaded guilty to a wire fraud charge, according to court records. He was never formally indicted, agreeing instead to plead guilty to the charge after being contacted by federal agents before they went before a grand jury, according to court records.
The nearly $1.4 million satisfied his restitution obligation, according to the March 10 memorandum.
Lord was able to repay the money so quickly because he had not spent it, but instead had put the funds into savings, the memorandum says.
Lord was accused of submitting loan applications for his law firm as well as Palmetto Safety Supply and two charities registered in his name, Gracepointe Christian Church and New Life Ministries of Irmo.
He also submitted three loan applications for a property management business located at 216 Racket Road in Chapin and for two agricultural businesses located at 126 and 133 Middlefield Road in Little Mountain.
All of these filings contained “fraudulent and false representations and submissions,” according to the charging document.
Since graduating from Mercer Law School in 1998 and being sworn into the South Carolina bar the following year, Lord had maintained a law practice that included estate, bankruptcy, and divorce cases, according a court filing.
On the side, he maintained strong ties to law enforcement and volunteered as a deputy coroner, both in Richland and Newberry counties. In letters to the court, Gary Watts, the former Richland County coroner, described Lord as a “first-rate individual” while Newberry County Coroner Laura G. Kneece wrote that Lord was “a model public servant with an admirable sense of duty.”
“These bad choices were dramatically out of character for my straight-arrow husband,” his wife, Ashley Lord, wrote in a letter to the court.
His time in law enforcement also contributed to the many mental health issues, including PTSD, , according to documents submitted by Benevento, his attorney. This would lead to his problems with alcohol around 1989, and he would later use alcohol to self-medicate for a wide range of chronic pain.
For a number of years before COVID, he struggled with suicidal thoughts. Despite often being a high achiever and a respected and engaged community member, Lord had struggled for much of his life with communicating with other people and suffered from heightened sensory problems. Following his charges, Lord also received an autism spectrum diagnosis.
The diagnosis “shed light on many of his past struggles,” his wife wrote to the court.
In addition to health issues ranging from chronic tinnitus to gout, Lord underwent multiple eye surgeries to recover his vision after being declared legally blind in 2017.
In encouraging the court to consider a lower sentence, Benevento also argued that Lord was now the primary caregiver for his three children (he has an additional three children from a prior relationship), including a 3-year-old daughter diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.
In 2022, Lord resigned from the South Carolina Bar rather than face further discipline, according to the memorandum.
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This story was originally published March 15, 2023 at 5:30 AM.
