Eleven people have been arrested and charged for stealing millions of dollars from COVID relief funds, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida.
Friday, U.S. Attorney Gregory Kehoe released the indictment charging the 11 defendants with a scheme that resulted in $2.2 million being stolen from the Small Business Administration.
“These are not victimless crimes. The ultimate victim in each and every case is the American taxpayer,” said Jamila Davis, assistant special agent in charge for the SBA-Office of Inspector General.
The defendants were identified as:
- Sherell Breus, 40, Champions Gate
- Jessie Perlado, 63, Lakeland
- Candice Harper, 37, Pooler, GA
- Yashica Carter, 40, Ft. Lauderdale
- Brandon Thomas, 39, Champions Gate
- Antwaun Jonson, 39, Delray Beach)
- Jessica Sejour, 33, Greenacres
- Tameshia Roberson, 44, Winter Haven
- Vance Houston, 30, Oakland Park
- Raymound Carvil Sr., 61, Ft. Lauderdale
Each has been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and nine counts of wire fraud, which could lead to a maximum 20-year prison sentence per conviction.
“We will do everything in our power to bring money that was taken from the United States people and bring it back to where it belongs: to the United States people,” said Kehoe.
The indictment alleged that between April 2020 and June 2021, the defendants conspired to steal the money from the SBA through fake applications through Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).
“None of it or very little bit, little, little of it was true,” Kehoe said. “They used inactive, dormant companies with minimal operations to and put claims in with the Small Business Administration to support these loan claims. In those applications to the SBA, they said we were providing health care, transportation, food services. Let me say this. If they were operating at all, it was a very, very, very little in the line of services, and some of these entities that put in for these applications weren’t providing services at all.”
The programs were lifelines established by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act to help small businesses that lost revenue during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“People like this subverted that attempt and took something that was designed for the good of the people and turned it into something that was only good for their own self-interest,” Kehoe said.
A separate indictment also charged Neil Bryant, 45, of Winter Haven with wire fraud for allegedly submitting a fake EIDL application. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 20 years and has been told that the U.S. federal government is seeking a forfeiture of $52,400.
According to the U.S. Attorney, the SBA has disbursed over $1.2 trillion in loans, but a significant portion of that amount could have been obtained fraudulently.
“Unfortunately, about 200 billion of that is potentially fraud, and we will continue to prosecute these matters as these cases unfold,” he said.
If you know of any instances of COVID-19 fund fraud, contact the Justice Department’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.