SAVANNAH, GA: As part of a coordinated statewide effort to combat COVID-19 scams, the Southern District of Georgia has taken action against individuals who illegally raised nearly $11 million in funds intended to to support struggling small businesses during the global pandemic.
In conjunction with the Department of Justice’s statewide efforts, the Southern District of Georgia conducted more than 20 enforcement actions from May to July 2023, involving suspected COVID-19 subsidy fraud with a total score of 10, according to US Attorney Jill E. Steinberg $.9 million went.
“Funding from the 2020 Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act has provided more than $650 billion to help small businesses meet the financial challenges of the pandemic,” U.S. Attorney Steinberg said. “Unfortunately, scammers have taken advantage of this program for their own benefit, and this nationwide initiative aims to hold them accountable for their widespread fraud.”
The CARES Act provided small business support primarily with grants and forgivable loans available through the Paycheck Protection Plan (PPP) or Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL). The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia, in cooperation with its law enforcement partners, conducted several enforcement actions during the May-June period, including:
- Kamario Thomas, 42, of Augusta, Georgia, was sentenced to 38 months in prison for conspiracy to wire fraud and money laundering. Thomas submitted more than 60 fraudulent pandemic relief loan applications and received hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks for his fraud. Thomas was ordered to pay $4,546,945 in full compensation.
- Bernard Okojie, 41, of McDonough, Georgia, was convicted after a three-day jury trial of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering. As detailed in the trial, Okojie used information from non-existent companies to submit more than 20 fraudulent pandemic aid loan applications, resulting in over $3.5 million in losses. He’s awaiting sentencing.
- Jacqueline Somesso, 55, of Savannah, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for bank fraud and felony misconduct. Somesso filed a bogus application for a pandemic relief loan, resulting in $570,736.87 in losses. She was ordered to pay compensation of that amount and to forfeit a monetary judgment of that amount. The court also entered a consent order forfeiting her interest in a $350,236.54 certificate of deposit and a $3,520.91 bank account, both of which were on fraud funds confiscated from her during the investigation.
- Kyle Waldron, 58, of Douglas, Georgia, was served with a civil enforcement action alleging the filing of numerous fraudulent pandemic relief loan applications. The lawsuit seeks confiscation of $326,461.33, the amount of fraud funds seized from his bank account.
- A civil foreclosure lawsuit has been filed for an Atlanta condo at Peachtree Road Northwest, and litigation is still ongoing. This $328,000 property was purchased with funds fraudulently looted from pandemic-fighting loans.
Anyone with information about suspected fraud related to COVID-19 may report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) hotline at 866-720-5721 or through the NCDF web complaint form at https:// /www .justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.
These cases were investigated by the Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Division, the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigations, the US Secret Service, the US Treasury General Inspector for Tax Administration, the Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General, the FBI, and the US Postal Inspection Service and the Office of the Inspector General of the United States Department of Labor.
Enforcement actions were prosecuted for the United States by Assistant US Attorneys Matthew A. Josephson, Jennifer A. Stanley, Ryan C. Grover, Lindsay Berman-Hansell, J. Bishop Ravenel, Alex Hamner, Marcella Mateo, and David H. Estes Senior Litigation Counsel Jennifer G. Solari.
