Reno Broadband Owner Pleads Guilty to Embezzling Over $7.8 Million From Federal Rural Broadband Grant Project in Nevada
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Nevada announced on October 27, 2026, that Stephen A. Kromer, owner of Reno, Nevada-based broadband company Uprise, LLC, pleaded guilty that day to embezzling more than $7.8 million from the federally funded Lovelock high-speed internet construction project, transferring project funds to his personal bank account. Lovelock is in Pershing County, Nevada, about 100 miles northeast of Reno.
According to court documents, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) awarded Uprise a $27 million federal grant through the ReConnect Program, which promotes high-speed internet networks in rural areas, to build a broadband network in rural Lovelock. As a condition of the grant, Uprise agreed to contribute approximately $9 million toward the project; it obtained that money from the State of Nevada and deposited it into a separate account designated solely for the Lovelock Project and overseen by the USDA.
From May 2024 through November 2024, Kromer embezzled more than $7.8 million from the designated account by transferring the money to his personal bank account and falsely accounting for the transfers as expenditures for the Lovelock Project. The indictment alleged that he then laundered the proceeds by moving them into accounts he held at various cryptocurrency exchanges, where the money was converted into cryptocurrency. Kromer pleaded guilty to one count of federal money laundering.
Sentencing is scheduled for March 9, 2027, before U.S. District Judge Richard F. Boulware II. Kromer faces a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years in prison; a federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. The FBI and the USDA Office of Inspector General investigated the case, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Steven Myhre and Skyler Pearson are prosecuting it.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Sigal Chattah for the District of Nevada said stealing public funds intended to connect rural communities is a direct assault on Nevada taxpayers, and that hiding stolen millions in cryptocurrency undermines public trust. USDA Rural Development Nevada State Director Alida Ceballos said the plea resulted from an all-of-government approach to tackling fraud.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：内华达州 Reno 市天际线（资料图）。图片来源：Trevor Bexon 摄，Wikimedia Commons，CC BY 2.0。Photo: The Reno, Nevada skyline (illustrative). Credit: Trevor Bexon, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.
