WASHINGTON — DC Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Clayton Rosenberg was sentenced to five years and three months in prison for wire fraud.
Before becoming a commissioner, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia said Rosenberg and his co-conspirators submitted fraudulent applications to steal from multiple pandemic relief programs.
One program Rosenberg defrauded was the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) for small businesses. This program provided loans to small businesses to stay afloat.
“I’m not that person. This was a vulnerable moment in my life when this occurred. I caught COVID and I thought I was going to die, and I didn’t care anymore,” Rosenberg said.
Rosenberg said he was approached with an “opportunity,” to steal from COVID relief programs in 2020. According to court documents, Rosenberg inflated each business' number of employees, monthly expenses, and revenue so they could get more money.
In turn, Rosenberg would get a cut. In all, he received $1,666,290.
Rosenburg told WUSA9 that the figure and his role in the operation were exaggerated.
“I was just a middleman, just a person who got referrals and referred them that's it,” he said. “A lot of times I didn't get any money. I had to wait for these individual business owners to pay the person they know, to pay me."
When explaining why he carried out these criminal acts, Rosenberg said he wanted to help his community.
“I knew this was a wrong situation, but I tried to see good in the wrong. I tried to see that at least I could say that I helped a business owner out that naturally, they didn't know how to get approval."
Prosecutors said Rosenberg used the money for luxury items, including new cars and hundreds of dollars on products for his beard.
"They put this on me and said $1,800 for beard care items. Look at my beard. It's a nice beard, but I didn't spend $1,800 on beard care and it's like a joke. It makes me look like a fool,” Rosenberg explained.
Rosenberg said he knew he was under investigation in 2021 and tried to turn his life around at that point, by getting his MBA and even running for office in the District. He currently serves as the Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner for parts of Wards 6 and 8.
“I gave everything back. I give my shirt off my back to the community,” Rosenberg said. “I didn't do anything as an elected official.”
Rosenberg is currently appealing the length of his sentence.
“I'm facing time now. I just regret it all and I want to apologize to the business people that could not get their loans approved. I just want to apologize to everybody, my family, my community."