Austin St. John was sentenced to five years probation last Thursday in connection with a $3.5 million Paycheck Protection Program scam.
Courthouse News reports the former red ranger, whose legal name is Jason Geiger, will owe over $225,000 in restitution.
The 50-year-old actor told U.S. District Judge Jeremy Kernodle the fraud was "a one-off thing."
"The court will never see me again," St. John said at sentencing. "I will go back to my good works."
St. John was one of 19 defendants indicted in 2022. Prosecutors say the alleged ringleader, Michael Hill, recruited people to use existing businesses or create sham businesses to apply for PPP funds, initially given as loans with a two-year maturity period and 1% interest and forgiven if businesses spent it on payroll, mortgage interest, rent and utilities within eight weeks of receipt. A co-conspirator, Andrew Moran, allegedly helped participants with paperwork to make it appear to the government they had done just that. St. John and other participants gave Hill and Moran a cut and spent the remaining money, according to prosecutors.
In a statement after the indictment, a spokesman for St. John said he put his "faith, reputation and finances" in the hands of people who ultimately betrayed his trust.
The pending case made it impossible for St. John to join his castmates in New Zealand for the filming of the 2023 special Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always.
