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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.

Robert A. Terrell, 51, of Washington, D.C., and Bowie, Maryland, pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court to falsifying documents to secure $1.35 million in COVID-19 relief funds for his business, announced U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro.

A jailed South Los Angeles gang leader, music label owner, and purported anti-gang activist awaiting a federal trial was charged today with seven additional federal felonies, including that he solicited two fellow jail inmates to murder or seriously injure a witness against him and attempting to tamper with that witness’s testimony.

LAS VEGAS – As a result of coordinated law enforcement actions in three states, seven men have been arrested and indicted in connection with submitting fraudulent COVID-19 relief loan applications administered by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program, totaling $205,639 in fraudulent loan proceeds. The takedown was conducted by the FBI Las Vegas Field Office; FBI Phoenix Division; FBI Houston Division, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, and the North Las Vegas Police Department.

Tampa, FL – Yan Daniel Inclan Hernandez (32, Orlando) has been charged by indictment with one count of making a false Statement to a financial institution and three counts of wire fraud. If convicted on all counts, Hernandez faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in federal prison per count. The indictment also notifies the defendant that the United States is seeking an order of forfeiture in the amount of $157,500, the proceeds of the charged criminal conduct.