Federal district · prosecutions
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia
23 pandemic-relief fraud prosecution records for the Southern District of Georgia, naming 23 defendants. By program: 13 PPP, 7 EIDL, 1 unemployment insurance, 2 other or unclassified. 5 have a case page in the archive. An amount is stated for 21 of them, from $41,665 to $4,200,000. Source dates run from 2021-06-15 to 2026-09-10.
Cases
23 defendants · 6 with a case page · sorted by amount, largest first
| Defendant | Case page | Program | Charge | Amount | Disposition | Sentence | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bernard Okojie | United States v. Bernard Okojie — S.D. Ga., No. 4:22-cr-00084-LGW-BWC | PPP, EIDL | Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud, Wire Fraud, and Money Laundering Conspiracy | $4,200,000 attempted | trial | 64 months | 2023-10-02 |
| Dara Buck | USA v. Buck | PPP | Conspiracy to Commit an Offense Against the United States | $3,680,247 fraudulent PPP loan disbursements and student loan discharges | guilty plea | 42 months | 2023-01-09 |
| Dara Butler | Fort Stewart Soldier Sentenced to Prison for Prolific Fraud Scheme Targeting COVID-19 Relief Programs, Student Loans | PPP | $3,680,247 restitution ordered | 42 months | 2023-01-09 | ||
| Shakeena Hamilton | Telfair County woman sentenced to federal prison for scheme to fraudulently obtain COVID-19 relief funding | PPP | Conspiracy to Commit an Offense Against the U.S. Government | $2,511,489.07 restitution ordered | plea | 60 months | 2022-08-30 |
| Salmat Deyji | Salmat Deyji, 26 — Sentenced to Prison and Ordered to Repay More Than $1 Million — COVID-19 Small Business Relief Program | PPP | Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud and Money Laundering | $1,073,307 restitution amount / fraudulently obtained funds | guilty plea | 26 months | 2023-05-02 |
| Dennis Rodriguez Kinchen | Unclassified pandemic relief | Conspiracy to Possess with Intent to Distribute, and to Distribute, 500 Grams or More of Cocaine, and an Amount of Methamphetamine, Heroin, and Marijuana; and Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering | $570,236.54 forfeiture | plea | 150 months | 2023-09-27 | |
| Gladys Harun | USA v. Harun (GASD 89545) | PPP, EIDL | lying to a federal investigator | $552,679 obtained | plea | 60 months | 2024-01-29 |
| Cheryl Galloway | DOJ Usao Sdga Press Release Florida Woman Sentenced Federal Prison Conspiracy Commit Mail 2026 09 10 | UI | conspiracy to commit mail fraud | $454,624.20 restitution ordered (release: the conspirators "received approximately $480,000 to which they were not entitled") | not specified | 71 months | 2026-09-10 |
| Shaquandra Woods | S.D. Ga. No. 4:22-cr-00016 (GASD 86281) | EIDL | Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud | $300,000 largest figure in the release | sentenced | 75 months | 2024-04-17 |
| Jerrod Bellamy | Two Sentenced to Federal Prison in Separate Cases for Fraudulently Obtaining COVID-19 Relief Funding | PPP | Conspiracy and Filing a False Tax Return | $223,807.14 personal PPP loan fraudulently obtained and conspiracy to obtain PPP loans for others | guilty plea | 22 months | 2022-12-12 |
| Whitney Adwan Mack | Georgia woman sentenced to federal prison for COVID-19 fraud | EIDL | wire fraud, false statements | $150,000 proceeds received | plea | 48 months | 2022-01-14 |
| Mack Devon Knight | Former South Georgia pastor, tax preparer sentenced to federal prison for COVID-19 relief fraud | EIDL | Two counts of Wire Fraud | $149,000 amount received from SBA EIDL program | plea | 29 months | 2022-09-20 |
| La’Kyera Me’Lika Thurmond | Georgia Siblings Sentenced for Defrauding Unemployment and COVID-19 Relief Programs (DOJ, 2024) | PPP/UI | Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud | $140,228 payments the Thurmonds and others fraudulently received for unemployment benefits from Georgia and Arizona, and for COVID-19 relief payments from the SBA and a financial services company | guilty plea | 21 months | 2024-06-10 |
| Brandon Jamal Thurmond | USA v. Thurmond et al. — U.S. District Court, S.D. Ga., Augusta Division | PPP/EIDL/UI | $140,228 restitution ordered | 21 months | 2024-04-30 | ||
| Jacinthia Williams | Augusta woman sentenced, ordered to pay restitution for CARES Act fraud | EIDL | wire fraud, false statements | $137,500 applied for and received | guilty plea | 13 months | 2021-06-15 |
| Vinath Oudomsine | United States v. Vinath Oudomsine — U.S. District Court, S.D. Ga. | EIDL | a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1343 | $85,000 EIDL proceeds received | guilty plea | 36 months | |
| Kameka Bausley | Richmond County Woman Sentenced to Federal Prison for Defrauding Pandemic Relief Program | PPP/EIDL | wire fraud | $71,933 obtained | plea | 32 months | 2024-12-10 |
| Tracy Kirkland | Swainsboro, Ga., woman admits defrauding government program designed to provide COVID-19 small business relief | EIDL | wire fraud | $66,400 obtained | plea | 33 months | 2021-07-15 |
| Anatoly Rybin | Judgment in a Criminal Case — United States v. Anatoly Rybin, Southern District of Georgia (Document 43) | EIDL | $60,340 restitution ordered | 3 months | |||
| Brandon Lamar Williams | A Chatham County Gang Member with a Violent Criminal History Has Been Sentenced to Prison (Brandon Lamar Williams, Savannah) | PPP | wire fraud | $46,522 obtained | plea | 60 months | 2022-12-08 |
| Kemar Clarke Jr. | Atlanta man who provided phony documentation to receive small business pandemic relief payments has been sentenced to prison (Kemar Clarke) | PPP | $41,665 largest figure in the release | sentenced | 8 months | 2024-03-18 | |
| Dantavious Jackson | Southern District of Georgia | Union City “Ghost Preparer” Sentenced to Prison for Fraudulently Seeking Over $4 Million in COVID-19 Employment Tax Credits | ERC/tax credits | mail fraud scheme to defraud the United States by making claims for refunds of false COVID-19 related employment tax credits | sentenced | 84 months | 2025-12-16 | |
| Cameron Mills | Judgment in a Criminal Case — United States v. Cameron Mills, Southern District of Georgia (Document 33) | PPP | 3 years probation |
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; 5 of the 23 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 Southern District of Georgia — every filing in the archive from this court, with the case pages it holds.