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Description: St.Louis, Missouri criminal law lawyer represented Defendant charged with coronavirus pandemic fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. 1343, which provides:
Whoever, having devised or intending to devise any scheme or artifice to defraud, or for obtaining money or property by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises, transmits or causes to be transmitted by means of wire, radio, or television communication in interstate or foreign commerce, any writings, signs, signals, pictures, or sounds for the purpose of executing such scheme or artifice, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both. If the violation occurs in relation to, or involving any benefit authorized, transported, transmitted, transferred, disbursed, or paid in connection with, a presidentially declared major disaster or emergency (as those terms are defined in section 102 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5122)), or affects a financial institution, such person shall be fined not more than $1,000,000 or imprisoned not more than 30 years, or both.
Dionneshae Forland, age 61, pleaded guilty to bank fraud, theft of government property and four counts of wire fraud and admitted a scheme to fraudulently obtain money from the Paycheck Protection Program and the Missouri Small Business Grant Program.
Forland took advantage of relief programs intended for small businesses and employees at risk of losing their jobs and used the money for personal expenses, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Clow said in court.
From January 2021 through May 2021, Forland lied on PPP loan applications about payroll and the number of employees and submitted fraudulent documents to obtain four loans totaling $592,225. She spent the money on personal expenses.
Forland also fraudulently obtained a $150,000 loan for a company linked to her son, Dwayne Times, and two loans totaling $36,600 on behalf of two people referred to her by Times.
Forland unsuccessfully submitted four fraudulent grant applications to the Missouri Small Business Grant Program in July 2020. She did succeed in fraudulently obtaining a grant of $49,988. After Times took out $8,000 in cash, the money was “clawed back” due to officials’ fraud suspicions.
Nearly $600,000 has been seized from various accounts linked to Forland or Times.
Times, 31, pleaded guilty June 9 to one count each of wire fraud and theft of government property. Judge White sentenced him Tuesday to five years of probation and ordered Times to repay $194,850.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Clow is prosecuting the case.
Outcome: The defendant pleaded to counts one, two, three, four, five and six of the indictment on July 11, 2022. The defendant is hereby committed to the custody of the United States Bureau of Prisons to be imprisoned for a total term of 24 months. Upon release from imprisonment, the defendant shall be on supervised release for a term of five (5) years. It is ordered that the Defendant shall pay to the United States a special assessment of $600.00 for Counts 1r, 2r, 3r, 4r, 5r and 6r , which shall be due immediately and Restitution in the amount of $787,675.24.
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