Austin St. John, who played Red Power Ranger Jason Lee Scott in the ’90s TV series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, was arrested Thursday morning after an FBI raid at his home in McKinney, Texas. St. John (real name Jason Lawrence Geiger) is accused of attempting to defraud the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program, which was designed to bring relief to struggling small businesses back in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
In a federal indictment shared by the Eastern District of Texas U.S. Attorney’s Office, St. John was listed as one of 18 people accused of receiving more than $3.5 million across 16 separate small business loans. In the indictment, authorities claim that the wire fraud was led by defendants Michael HIll and Andrew Moran, who, arranged for the 18 defendants to file for PPP loans through existing, or newly created small businesses.
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“On the applications, the defendants are alleged to have misrepresented material information such as the true nature of their business, the number of employees, and the amount of payroll,” according to the indictment. “Based on these material misrepresentations, the SBA and other financial institutions approved and issued loans to the defendants.”
Once they had received the “fraudulently obtained funds,” authorities say they did not use the money as intended – to pay employee salaries, cover fixed debt or utility payments, or continue health care benefits for employees. “Instead, the defendants typically paid Hill and Moran, transferred money to their personal accounts, and spent the funds on various personal purchases,” the indictment alleges. If convicted, the defendants each face up to 20 years in federal prison.
St. John first appeared in the Power Rangers in the early ’90s, but he’s still a part of the franchise. In 2019, he voiced his character in the video game Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid, and in 2020 he appeared in the TV series Power Rangers Beast Morphers as his character. IMDb has the actor listed as having one project, titled The Order, currently listed in pre-production. St. John has yet to comment publicly on his arrest or the allegations made against him.
