Power Ranger Actor Actor Jason Lawrence Geiger Arrested In COVID Relief Scheme

One of the “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” could get in big trouble with the law.

Actor Jason Lawrence Geiger, 47, who played the Red Ranger in the cheesy 1990s children’s show and related films, has been arrested for his alleged involvement in a scheme to fraudulently obtain federal funds for COVID-19.

Geiger, whose stage name is Austin St. John, was one of 19 people charged under the scheme, which resulted in at least 16 fraudulent loans totaling $3.5 million, the US Attorney for the eastern district of Texas announced this week.

The McKinney, Tx. The resident is accused of being part of a network that applied for loans through the Paycheck Protection Program using false information or forged documents, prosecutors said.

The network was led by Michael Hill aka “Tank,” 47, and NAdrew Moran, 43, who recruited others to “use an existing business or start a business” to apply for the loans, which are part of the massive 349 -billion dollars federal CARES Act.

The loans were intended to provide relief to businesses feeling the effects of the COVID pandemic and resulting shutdown – but network members paid Hill and Moran or used the money for themselves. In some cases, the defendants sent the money to Jonathan Spencer, 33 to invest in foreign exchange markets, prosecutors said.

Geiger was arrested on Tuesday and remains behind bars pending a court hearing in Plano on Monday. He has pleaded not guilty to a single charge against him, his attorney said – adding the embattled actor plans to “vigorously defend himself against that allegation”.

If convicted, each of the accused faces up to 20 years in prison, prosecutors said.

With postal wires