DOJ announces sentencing for 3 convicted of COVID-19 relief fraud
- The three illegally obtained around $3.5 million in COVID-19 relief funding
- SBA estimates over $200 billion of small business-related COVID fraud
- The DOJ has charged at least 2,191 individuals, entities with COVID fraud
FILE – The Justice Department in Washington, Nov. 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
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(NewsNation) — The Department of Justice announced three people convicted of bank fraud in 2023 have been sentenced for illegally obtaining and misusing $3.5 million worth of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans issued under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES).
The three are 59-year-old Khadijah X. Chapman of Atlanta, who was sentenced to three years and 10 months in prison; 42-year-old Daniel C. Labrum of South Jordan, Utah, sentenced to two years in prison; and 58-year-old Eric J. O’Neil of Bethel, Connecticut, who received two years and three months of prison time.
Per the DOJ, the three “fraudulently obtained PPP loans for fictitious businesses in 2020 and 2021. The defendants worked with co‑conspirators to falsify information and submitted fraudulent documents to financial institutions in Boise and elsewhere to collectively obtain approximately $3.5 million in relief funding intended for small businesses struggling with the economic impact of COVID-19.”
According to a report by the Small Business Administration issued in June 2023, more than $200 billion of funds allocated to aid small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic may have been fraudulently obtained, 17% of the total $1.2 trillion issued.
Meanwhile, in a Government Accountability Office report from November of last year, it was announced the DOJ “has brought federal fraud-related charges against at least 2,191 individuals or entities in cases involving federal COVID-19 relief programs, consumer scams, and more.” At least 1,525 of these individuals or entities were found guilty or liable of a crime.