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A federal grand jury returned a 10-count indictment against a North Texas resident for allegedly defrauding pandemic relief programs of more than $680,000. April Watson, 50, also known as “April Watson Horton” and “April Shawnette Watson,” is charged with four counts of wire fraud, two counts of bank fraud and four counts of engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity (money laundering).

Today, the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division along with the Small Business Administration (SBA) and the SBA Office of Inspector General, as part of a Heartland Fraud Surge announced the results of Operation No Doze, a surge of criminal enforcement actions targeting fraud in SBA’s small business COVID-era loan programs.

Shahriar “Sean” Loloee, 55, of Granite Bay, pleaded guilty today to three fraud schemes he perpetrated as the owner and operator of Viva Supermarket, a Sacramento-area supermarket chain.

BOSTON – A Fitchburg, Mass. man pleaded guilty today in federal court in Worcester to his role in a fraud scheme that used the stolen identities of more than 100 individuals to obtain $440,000 in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits from Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The defendant and his alleged co-conspirators also fraudulently obtained over $700,000 in Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) benefits from Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio Washington and Nevada.

A rideshare driver from the Koreatown neighborhood of Los Angeles has been arrested on a five-count federal indictment charging him with fraudulently obtaining more than $2 million in COVID-19 pandemic business-relief loans on behalf of his nonexistent companies, which he instead used to buy cryptocurrency, the Justice Department announced today.

Baltimore, Maryland – U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Maddox sentenced Lakeisha Parker, 33, of Baltimore, Maryland, to three years in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, including six months of home detention, for her role in a large, multi-member money laundering conspiracy. Judge Maddox also ordered Parker to pay more than $8 million in restitution.

A 13-count indictment has now been unsealed alleging a scheme to defraud the Small Business Administration and Paycheck Protection Program-affiliated lenders during the COVID-19 pandemic

A Middlesex County, New Jersey, woman admitted that she fraudulently obtained Economic Injury Disaster Loan (“EIDL”), Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”), and pandemic unemployment insurance benefits.