Nicholas Stellato, 53, who formerly served as Rear Commodore for the Ballena Bay Yacht Club, is facing charges of grand theft, making a false statement on a financial form, and money laundering after allegedly securing a $224,276.43 federal grant and then spending a significant amount on himself, according to a report in the East Bay Times.
Stellato allegedly filed a Small Business Administration’s Restaurant Revitalization Fund grant application during the pandemic, falsely claiming that the yacht club qualified as a restaurant or bar. The yacht club is a nonprofit and shouldn’t have been eligible for a restaurant relief grant, authorities said in court filings.
The application was filed in May 2021, according to court records, and the yacht club was listed among recipients in a July 19, 2021 Alameda Patch report. When the club’s CEO saw the list of grant recipients in the Patch article, he referred the matter to police, according to court records mentioned in the Times report.
Authorities say Stellato transferred $175,000 of the grant money to his own internet services company that he started during the pandemic, according to the Times. From there, he spent about $82,674 on personal expenses, including cash withdrawals, travel, restaurant charges, and the purchase of a Jeep, according to court filings noted in a Hoodline SF report…