Federal district · prosecutions
U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona
14 pandemic-relief fraud prosecution records for the District of Arizona, naming 13 defendants. By program: 5 PPP, 9 unemployment insurance. None has a case page in the archive. An amount is stated for 14 of them, from $62,151 to $30,000,000. Source dates run from 2022-04-08 to 2026-02-18.
Cases
13 defendants from 14 rows · 0 with a case page · sorted by amount, largest first
| Defendant | Case page | Program | Charge | Amount | Disposition | Sentence | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Willie Mitchell | PPP | bank fraud | $30,000,000 (DOJ release) | sentenced | 97 months | 2023-06-08 | |
| Roy Layne | PPP, EIDL, Tax Fraud PPP, EIDL | wire fraud, false claim, false claims filing false tax returns, loan applications to obtain COVID-19 disaster relief | $7,400,000 amount sought | plea sentenced | 48 months | 2025-05-01 2025-04-29 | |
| James Theodore Polzin | PPP, EIDL | $3,500,000 amount sought | plea | 48 months | 2022-04-08 | ||
| Brandilyn Lorenzen | UI/PUA | Bribery Concerning a Program that Receives Federal Funds | $2,900,000 restitution | guilty plea | 30 months | 2025-01-21 | |
| Jacqueline Espino | UI/PUA | Bribery Concerning a Program that Receives Federal Funds | $740,000 restitution | guilty plea | 2 years probation | 2025-11-24 | |
| Celestine Coletta Strong | PPP | Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud | $400,000 obtained | plea | 60 months | 2022-11-09 | |
| Daniel Lucero | PUA | Theft (Class 2 Felony); Aggravated Taking of Identity of Another (Class 3 Felony) | $228,487 restitution ordered | guilty plea | 84 months | 2023-04-11 | |
| Makallyn Hunt | PUA | Theft (Class 5 Felony); Aggravated Taking of Identity of Another (Class 3 Felony) | $228,487 restitution ordered | guilty plea | 18 months | 2023-04-11 | |
| Patrick Green | UI | Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud | $226,146 restitution amount for the fraudulent scheme | guilty plea | 14 months | 2023-09-07 | |
| Gary Cartier | PUA | Illegally Conducting an Enterprise | $209,659 restitution ordered | guilty plea | 30 months | 2025-09-17 | |
| Katherine Comesano | PUA | Illegally Conducting an Enterprise | $209,659 restitution ordered | guilty plea | 30 months | 2025-09-17 | |
| David Christopher Ellis | PUA | Fraudulent Schemes and Artifices (Class 2 Felony) | $62,151 restitution ordered | guilty plea | 72 months | 2026-02-18 | |
| Gabbrielle Elizabeth Ellis | PUA (Arizona DES) | Fraudulent Schemes and Artifices (Class 2 Felony) | $62,151 restitution ordered | Guilty plea / probation | 7 years probation | 2026-02-18 |
Data and method
Each row is one row of the pandemic-relief sentences table, printed as that table prints it: defendant, program, charge, amount and its basis, disposition, and the date of the source the row was read from. A blank cell is a blank cell in the table. The sentence column states the months of imprisonment the table records, or the years of probation where it records no custodial term. A case page is linked only where a case page in this district names the defendant; 0 of the 14 rows do. District is the table’s own district field, resolved to this court. Rows whose district field names only a state with more than one federal district are not placed on any district page. A date the table writes in another form is restated as YYYY-MM-DD; a cell that is not a date is printed as it stands. An amount of $1 billion or more is left out: those cells carry a program appropriation quoted in the source release, not a sum attributed to the defendant. Some defendants have more than one row because the table read them from more than one source.
Court hub: U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona — every filing in the archive from this court, with the case pages it holds.