ALBANY — A Guilderland woman who scammed more than $1.6 million in pandemic-related relief loans intended to help needy businesses was sentenced to one year and four months behind bars Tuesday as a judge called her crime “the most outrageous conduct that I’ve ever seen.”
Debra Hackstadt, 68, who admittedly fabricated and grossly overstated her number of employees, payrolls and sole proprietorships on 32 loan applications, must pay $1,696,324 in restitution under the sentencing imposed by U.S. District Judge Glenn Suddaby, The judge also imposed two years of supervised release when Hackstadt’s prison term ends.
Hackstadt pleaded guilty in May to two counts of wire fraud. She had victimized the Paycheck Protection Program, loans issued by private financial institutions and backed by the U.S. government, and Economic Injury Disaster Loans issued by the U.S. Small Business Administration.
On Tuesday, Hackstadt and her attorney, Jonathan Cohn, sought leniency from Suddaby. They told the judge Hackstadt experienced a traumatic and abuse-filled childhood, thyroid and kidney cancer and the April 2019 death of her husband of nearly 47 years.
“I’m terribly sorry. I was trying to help my family,” Hackstadt told Suddaby amid tears, as a half-dozen family members and supporters watched from a courtroom bench. “I just panicked. I really wasn’t thinking when I put in for the loans.”
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