Six people have been indicted for allegedly orchestrating a wide-ranging scheme to fraudulently acquire greater than $34 million in federal COVID-19 aid funds, U.S. Legal professional Hayden P. O’Byrne announced Thursday.
Elaine A. Escoe, 40; Alfred L. Davis, 51; Gino J. Jourdan, 37; Cher L. Davis, 53; Latoya T. Clark, 39; and James G. McGhow, 69, face costs of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit cash laundering, and a number of counts of wire fraud and cash laundering.
Federal prosecutors allege that between Might 2020 and November 2021, the defendants submitted over 90 fraudulent purposes for help by federal applications, together with the Paycheck Safety Program (PPP), Financial Damage Catastrophe Loans (EIDL), Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF), and Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG). The purposes reportedly included falsified IRS tax paperwork, fabricated financial institution statements, and misrepresented worker numbers, payroll prices, and enterprise revenues.
In keeping with the indictment, the scheme led to the disbursement of roughly $29.1 million in PPP funds, $3.8 million in SVOG funds, and $1.2 million in RRF funds. As soon as the funds have been secured, the defendants allegedly funneled the cash by companies they managed, wrote checks to one another, withdrew giant sums of money, and used clean, signed checks to cover the supply of the cash.
Every defendant faces as much as 20 years in jail for every wire fraud depend and as much as 10 years for every cash laundering depend. Sentencing might be decided by a federal district decide based mostly on U.S. Sentencing Tips and different authorized elements.
The FBI’s West Palm Seashore workplace led the investigation, with help from Homeland Safety Investigations (HSI) Miami. Assistant U.S. Legal professional Jonathan Bailyn is prosecuting the case, with help from Authorized Administrative Specialist Matthew Neff.
