Pandemic Darlings The pandemic economy, in original documents
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U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia

10 pandemic-relief fraud prosecution records for the Middle District of Georgia, naming 9 defendants. By program: 2 PPP, 8 unemployment insurance. None has a case page in the archive. An amount is stated for 8 of them, from $42,667 to $30,000,000. Source dates run from 2022-03-17 to 2025-12.

Cases

9 defendants from 10 rows · 0 with a case page · sorted by amount, largest first

DefendantCase pageProgramChargeAmountDispositionSentenceDate
Macovian DostonUIparticipation in a scheme to defraud the Georgia Department of Labor (GaDOL)$30,000,000
restitution ordered
sentenced180 months2025-05-22
Tyshion Nautese HicksUIconspiracy to commit mail fraud, aggravated identity theft, illegal possession of a machine gun$30,000,000
stolen benefits; restitution ordered
plea
guilty plea
144 months2024-10-25
2024-10-24
Malcolm JeffreyUIconspiracy to commit mail fraud$16,958,372
restitution ordered
trial conviction120 months2025-12
Anthony J. BonciminoPPPmoney laundering$2,671,871.74
PPP loans obtained
guilty plea36 months2022-03-17
Sharmaine SimpsonPPP, EIDL, UIwire fraud, conspiracy, false statements$1,079,233.02
total amount illegally sought from pandemic relief funds by the conspiracy
plea30 months2024-08-22
Gerard TownsUIconspiracy to commit mail fraud$365,066
restitution ordered
guilty plea72 months2025-12
Elias BenifieldUIidentity theft, wire fraud, conspiracy$42,667
unemployment insurance (UI) benefits
guilty plea42 months2022-03-24
Shatara HubbardUIPandemic-related unemployment insurance (UI) fraudsentenced72 months2025-05-22
Torella WynnUIunemployment insurance (UI) fraud schemesentenced12 months2025-05-22

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 10 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 Middle District of Georgia — every filing in the archive from this court, with the case pages it holds.

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