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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.

BOSTON – The Mayor of Lawrence, Mass., has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Boston. The 11-count indictment, unsealed today, charges the Mayor with allegedly obtaining over $1.5 million in COVID small-business loans. It is alleged that the money was used to fund his campaign account, pay personal taxes and pay more than $880,000 in high-interest, hard-money mortgages on properties he owned in Lawrence.

Jurors deliberated for about an hour before finding Kenneth C. Sparks III guilty of 20 counts.

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.

A Bergen County man, who orchestrated a scheme to fraudulently obtain approximately $670,292 in COVID-19 relief funding, was sentenced on August 12, 2026, to 24 months imprisonment.

PHOENIX, Ariz. – Mohammed Maio, 43, of Phoenix, Arizona, pleaded guilty earlier this month to Conspiracy to Commit Wire and Bank Fraud and Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering. Mohammed Maio also pleaded guilty in a second matter to Felon in Possession of a Firearm, and Aiding Another in Making a Materially False Statement to Purchase a Firearm.

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.

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.