{"id":63955,"date":"2026-03-20T17:42:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T21:42:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=63955"},"modified":"2026-03-20T17:42:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T21:42:23","slug":"its-a-wild-story-but-its-actually-a-real-case-that-reached-its-conclusion-this-week-a-federal-judge-in-miami-officially-stripped-joff-stenn-wroy-philossaint-a-25-year-old-living-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/03\/20\/its-a-wild-story-but-its-actually-a-real-case-that-reached-its-conclusion-this-week-a-federal-judge-in-miami-officially-stripped-joff-stenn-wroy-philossaint-a-25-year-old-living-i\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a wild story, but it\u2019s actually a real case that reached its conclusion this week. A federal judge in Miami officially stripped Joff Stenn Wroy Philossaint, a 25-year-old living in Fort Lauderdale, of his U.S. citizenship"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

It\u2019s a wild story, but it\u2019s actually a real case that reached its conclusion this week. A federal judge in Miami officially stripped Joff Stenn Wroy Philossaint<\/strong>, a 25-year-old living in Fort Lauderdale, of his U.S. citizenship.<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the “Florida Man” headlines often lean into the bizarre, this one is a major legal blow because denaturalization (the legal process of revoking citizenship) is relatively rare and usually reserved for cases of extreme fraud or national security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Scheme<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Philossaint was the mastermind behind a massive COVID-19 relief fraud operation between 2020 and 2021.<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • The Numbers:<\/strong> He and his co-conspirators submitted roughly 40 fraudulent loan applications<\/strong> for various businesses.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • The Payout:<\/strong> They successfully pulled in approximately $3.8 million<\/strong> in government aid (PPP and EIDL funds) meant for struggling small businesses.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • The Personal Take:<\/strong> Philossaint personally pocketed over $549,000<\/strong> through direct proceeds and kickbacks.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    Why he lost his citizenship<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    The reason he lost his status isn’t just because he committed a crime; it\u2019s because he lied during the naturalization process<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n
    1. The Timing:<\/strong> He applied for citizenship in February 2020, right before the pandemic hit.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    2. The Lie:<\/strong> During his sworn interview in December 2020, he was already deep into the fraud scheme. When asked if he had ever committed a crime for which he hadn’t been arrested, he said “no.”<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    3. The Result:<\/strong> Because he used those false statements to obtain his citizenship in February 2021, a jury found that he “illegally procured” his status.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
      \n\n\n\n

      What happens now?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

      The court’s order on February 23, 2026<\/strong>, finalized the revocation.<\/sup> Here is what Philossaint is facing:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        \n
      • Prison:<\/strong> He was previously sentenced to 50 months<\/strong> in federal prison (though some reports mention a longer 12-year span, the DOJ release confirmed the sentencing occurred in 2023).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • Deportation:<\/strong> Now that he is no longer a U.S. citizen, he has reverted to his previous status as a Haitian national. Once he completes his prison sentence, he is subject to mandatory deportation proceedings.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

        It’s a stark reminder that while citizenship is often considered permanent, it can be undone if the foundation it was built on is proven to be fraudulent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        It\u2019s a wild story, but it\u2019s actually a real case that reached its conclusion this week. A federal judge in Miami officially stripped Joff Stenn Wroy Philossaint, a 25-year-old living… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63956,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"17","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"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.4Np8tJwzob1f3Jkf20YmZqkHhezqsYRaMS53NRaOZmkMQ"},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[14138,14137,14136,14139],"class_list":["post-63955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-regional-and-world-news","tag-a-25-year-old-living-in-fort-lauderdale","tag-but-its-actually-a-real-case-that-reached-its-conclusion-this-week-a-federal-judge-in-miami-officially-stripped-joff-stenn-wroy-philossaint","tag-its-a-wild-story","tag-of-his-u-s-citizenship"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63955"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63957,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63955\/revisions\/63957"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}