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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.

Today, Brittany Blalock, 35, of Washington, D.C., was ordered to pay $41,666 in restitution to Harvest Small Business Finance, LLC and sentenced to 48 months’ probation in connection with a scheme to fraudulently obtain Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans during the COVID-19 pandemic, announced U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro. Blalock pleaded guilty on March 4, 2026, before U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

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.

BOSTON – A former employee of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) was sentenced today in federal court in Boston for fraudulently obtaining over $40,000 in pandemic unemployment assistance (PUA) benefits.

Baltimore, Maryland – A Maryland woman received a federal-prison term, today, for her role in an unemployment insurance (UI) fraud conspiracy. District Judge Matthew J. Maddox sentenced Elizabeth Maria Ceballos, 50, of Silver Spring, to 40 months in federal prison, followed by two years of supervised release, for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft charges in connection with the scheme.

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.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – A Chickaloon man was sentenced yesterday to two years in prison for orchestrating a scheme to defraud the U.S. government of COVID-19 relief funds.

URBANA, Ill. – A federal grand jury indicted an Urbana woman, Titianna Ammons, of the 1100 block of North Busey Avenue, on three counts of wire fraud for allegedly defrauding the U.S. Department of Labor and Illinois Department of Employment Security from October of 2020 to October of 2021.