Willson was found guilty of one count each of conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, six counts of wire fraud and four counts of false claims.
BOSTON – Christopher D. Willson, a scientist and business partner of Michael Armitage with EV Worldwide, was convicted by a federal jury in connection with a fraud scheme involving a $4.3 million federal energy research grant, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Willson was found guilty of one count each of conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, six counts of wire fraud and four counts of false claims.
Willson was the chief scientist and senior vice president of EV Worldwide, LLC (EVW), a Pittsfield, Mass. company that from 2000 through 2005 was recipient of a $4.3 million grant from the Federal Transit Administration. The grant was awarded as a budget earmark arranged by U.S. Rep. John Olver, D-Amherst, and was supposed to help the company research an electric battery that would be capable of powering public transit buses.
The payment was intended as a matching grant, where federal funds were to reimburse EV Worldwide 50 percent for money the company invested in the battery research.
Evidence submitted by the prosecution showed that between 2004-05, Willson submitted 10 fraudulent invoices showing EV Worldwide had spent on the project, when records revealed the company was millions of dollars in debt and had no other source of revenue other than federal grant money.
During this time, Willson repeatedly contacted and met with Olver and Federal Transit Administration officials, giving false updates about progress with the battery research. From this he was able to secure another $700,000 in funding, but he never disclosed the company’s financial problems, prosecutors charged.
The prosecution showed that the money was used to give Armitage approximately
$250,000, Willson $100,000 and another $110,000 was used to fund Hydrogen Storage Media, Inc., a Canadian-based research company that the pair founded.
U.S. District Judge Rya Zobel scheduled sentencing for October 6, 2011. Willson faces up to 20 years in prison for each of the six counts of wire fraud, up to five years in prison for each of the four counts of false claims and up to five years in prison on the conspiracy count. Willson also faces maximum fines of $250,000 per count.
Armitage in October pleaded guilty to 10 criminal counts for tax evasion, securing a $1 million loan with fraudulent documents, and defrauding the federal government. He is due to be sentenced in September, and could be sentenced to six years in prison and face up to $6 million in restitution.