"New Yorker Gets Four Years for $9m COVID Fraud Scheme"

A New York woman has recently been jailed after pleading guilty to offenses related to a fraud scheme that stole millions in COVID relief funds.  Sherry Joseph, 34, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud back on November 10, 2022, and was handed a 45-month sentence last Friday.  Court documents revealed she recruited multiple individuals to apply for fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans in exchange for kickbacks from their payment checks.  She sent their information to other co-conspirators, who prepared the loan applications, including faked bank statements and payroll tax forms, and exaggerated the number of employees and amount of monthly payroll the applicants had.  According to the Department of Justice (DoJ), there were 30 participants, and all the participants have been convicted.  Joseph herself was apparently on pretrial release for separate federal fraud-related offenses in the District of New Jersey when she participated in the scheme.  The DoJ noted that the false applications sought a total of $9.2m in forgivable PPP loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.  Alongside her jail term, Joseph has been ordered to serve three years of supervised release and pay over $1.6m in restitution and $55,000 in forfeiture.  In December 2021, the Secret Service estimated that as much as $100bn in Covid relief funds might have been stolen. 

Infosecurity reports: "New Yorker Gets Four Years for $9m COVID Fraud Scheme"