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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.

BOSTON – The Massachusetts State Representative for the 16th Essex District, representing Lawrence and Methuen, was arrested today and charged with fraudulently obtaining over $700,000 in COVID unemployment insurance benefits and small-business loans, and using the proceeds to buy real estate and loan money to clients of his mortgage business, before he was elected to public office.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - An Anchorage businesswoman was sentenced today to 3.8 years in prison for lying on federal loan applications and stealing identities to fraudulently obtain nearly $1 million in COVID-19 relief funds.

Seattle – The final defendant of a six-defendant fraud scheme that submitted fraudulent applications seeking more than $6.8 million in COVID benefits was convicted late yesterday in U.S. District Court in Seattle, announced First Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Neil Floyd.

The indictment accuses the conspirators of submitting at least 40 fraudulent applications for Paycheck Protection Program loans and Economic Injury Disaster Loans that yielded at least $8.3 million.

Ten individuals face federal charges stemming from a fraud and money laundering operation that targeted government loan programs offered by the U.S. Small Business Administration, including the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program and Paycheck Protection Program. In addition, two of the defendants were charged with laundering the proceeds of a fraudulent unemployment insurance scheme.

Salimot Akande, Garey Henderson, and Jacqueline Rollizo were arraigned today on federal fraud and money laundering charges after they allegedly defrauded COVID-19 pandemic relief programs on multiple occasions and then laundered nearly $2 million in proceeds.

A former Wells Fargo & Co. banker and his brother have been arrested on an eight-count federal grand jury indictment alleging they schemed to fraudulently obtain more than $2.7 million in taxpayer-funded COVID-19 relief funds and federally-guaranteed small business loans, including by submitting applications using the stolen identities of developmentally disabled persons who lived in long-term care facilities, the Justice Department announced today.