Former Stockton mayor set to plead guilty in federal COVID-era loan case
A former Stockton mayor has reached a plea agreement with federal prosecutors regarding bank fraud and identity theft charges.
Anthony Silva, who was charged last August with falsifying an application for a federal Paycheck Protection Program loan during the COVID-19 pandemic, is set to plead guilty to one or both charges in federal court in Sacramento on Tuesday, court documents show.
Silva served as Stockton’s mayor from 2013 to 2017, a term that was plagued by scandal.
In 2015, he was charged in Amador County in connection with a strip poker game at a youth camp, ultimately pleading no contest two years later to providing alcohol to a minor.
He again pleaded no contest in 2019 to one count of conflict of interest in connection with the use of funds meant for the now-defunct Stockton Boys and Girls Club, for which he served as CEO. He was initially charged with six counts of money laundering, embezzlement, grand theft and misappropriation of public funds in that case.
Last year, federal investigators accused Silva of using someone else’s name to obtain about $17,000 in federal loans in 2020 and 2021 for his company, Indoor Adventures. Silva was not eligible for the loans because he had previously been convicted of a felony, prosecutors said in the criminal complaint.
On Monday, a hearing scheduled for Tuesday morning before U.S. District Judge John Mendez was changed from a status conference to a change-of-plea hearing, and prosecutors filed notice that they had reached an agreement with Silva.
The plea agreement had not been filed with the court by Monday afternoon, and it was not immediately clear whether Silva planned to plead guilty to both charges. Such agreements do not become effective until the defendant pleads guilty before a judge.
