Reports

JAMES TOWNSEND schemed to fraudulently obtain more than $2 million in small business loans under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act).

BOSTON – The owner of a Sudbury accounting firm and a real estate company was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Boston for paying an executive more than $1.6 million in compensation and fringe benefits under the table, and to making a fraudulent application for more than $179,000 in pandemic relief through a multi-year scheme.

Jedrek Upton, 45, of Lincoln, was sentenced today to one year in prison to be followed by 36 months supervised release, of which 12 months are to be spent on home detention, for wire fraud and money laundering in a scheme to steal nearly $1.5 million of COVID-relief loans.

United States Attorney Scott F. Leary announced today that Patricia Jones, 44, of Lamar, Benton County, Mississippi was sentenced by Senior District Judge Sharion Aycock. After pleading guilty on an earlier date, Jones was sentenced to 50 months imprisonment, 3 years supervised release and ordered to pay $1,422,022 to her victims.

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) initiated a proactive review in January 2025 to identify fraud, waste, or abuse of pandemic relief benefits that may have impacted agency employees.

Mobile, AL – Aylesha Maria Allen of Mobile, Alabama, was sentenced on June 22, 2026, to one year and one day in federal prison for filing fraudulent tax returns.

Roosevelt Gulley, 42, of Sacramento, was sentenced Monday to four years and six months in prison and ordered to pay $575,425 in restitution for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft related to unemployment insurance fraud during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A civil settlement was unsealed showing that a group of IT companies agreed to pay $7 million after receiving funding from the CARES Act Paycheck Protection Program for which they were ineligible, announced U.S. Attorney Clint Johnson.