Federal district · prosecutions
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California
15 pandemic-relief fraud prosecution records for the Eastern District of California, naming 15 defendants. By program: 4 PPP, 11 unemployment insurance. 2 have a case page in the archive. An amount is stated for 13 of them, from $74,000 to $13,400,000. Source dates run from 2021-07-12 to 2026-03-23.
Cases
15 defendants · 4 with a case page · sorted by amount, largest first
| Defendant | Case page | Program | Charge | Amount | Disposition | Sentence | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jason Toland | Yuba County Man Sentenced to 2 Years and 11 Months for False Claims in a COVID-19 Fraud Scheme | PPP/EIDL/ERC/tax credits | submitting false claims against the United States | $13,400,000 attempted | sentenced | 35 months | 2024-11-19 |
| Tabitha Leigh Markle | UI/PUA | mail fraud and aggravated identity theft | $2,590,000 obtained | guilty plea | 50 months | 2025-08-07 | |
| Aaron Ashcraft | Aaron Ashcraft wire and bank fraud case — E.D. Cal., Sacramento | PPP, UI | Paycheck Protection Program fraud, embezzlement from a former employer, and Pandemic Unemployment Assistance fraud | $1,200,000 Paycheck Protection Program loans requested | guilty plea | 41 months | 2022-12-12 |
| Deshawn Oshaea Campbell | UI/PUA | felon in possession of a firearm and mail fraud | $1,150,000 joint and several restitution | guilty plea | 87 months | 2025-08-07 | |
| Rochelle Pasley | UI/PUA | conspiracy to commit mail fraud, mail fraud, and aggravated identity theft | $1,150,000 actual loss | plea | 65 months | 2025-08-07 | |
| Terence Aubrey Larker | UI | mail fraud; aggravated identity theft | $1,100,000 restitution ordered | sentenced | 58 months | 2023-12-12 | |
| Tracy Emery Smith | Calaveras County Man Sentenced for COVID-19 Paycheck Protection Program Fraud | PPP | money laundering | $901,035 PPP loan funds obtained | guilty plea | 37 months | 2024-05-13 |
| Gurjeet Bath | Full Docket Gurjeet Bath Caed 451006 | PPP | theft of government property | $825,000 stole more than $825,000 in federal funds | guilty plea | 14 months | 2026-03-23 |
| Cecilia Aquino | Fresno Woman Sentenced to More than Six Years in Prison for $300,000 COVID-19 Pandemic Fraud Crime Spree | UI | mail fraud | $300,000 obtained | plea | 75 months | 2023-03-27 |
| Sholanda Thomas | E.D. Cal. No. 1:20-cr-00253 (CAED 385643) | UI | conspiracy to submit fraudulent unemployment insurance claims | $250,000 intended loss | sentenced | 65 months | 2022-10-03 |
| Christina Smith | E.D. Cal. No. 1:20-cr-00253 (CAED 385644) | UI | conspiracy, aggravated identity theft | $250,000 intended loss | sentenced | 60 months | 2021-09-07 |
| Alana Powers | COVID-19 Unemployment Benefit Fraud Scheme Charged | UI | $74,722 restitution ordered | 61 months | |||
| Jason Vertz | Two Plead Guilty in COVID-19 Unemployment Benefit Fraud Scheme | UI | conspiracy to commit mail fraud, aggravated identity theft | $74,000 actual loss | sentenced | 61 months | 2021-07-12 |
| Ayodeji Jonathan Sangode | UI | conspiracy to commit wire fraud | sentenced | 14 months | 2023-10-10 | ||
| Quazeem Owolabi Adeyinka | UI | conspiracy to commit wire fraud | sentenced | 26 months | 2023-10-10 |
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; 2 of the 15 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 Eastern District of California — every filing in the archive from this court, with the case pages it holds.