Federal district · prosecutions
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky
9 pandemic-relief fraud prosecution records for the Eastern District of Kentucky, naming 9 defendants. By program: 4 PPP, 3 EIDL, 2 other or unclassified. None has a case page in the archive. An amount is stated for 8 of them, from $76,854.50 to $1,729,257. Source dates run from 2022-07-07 to 2026-03-17.
Cases
9 defendants · 0 with a case page · sorted by amount, largest first
| Defendant | Case page | Program | Charge | Amount | Disposition | Sentence | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| John A. Hopkins | Lexington Man Sentenced for Money Laundering and Wire Fraud Involving COVID Relief Loans | EIDL | money laundering, wire fraud, false statements | $1,729,257 attempted | plea | 24 months | 2026-02-11 |
| Randall “Rocky” Blankenship, Jr. | Woodford County Man Sentenced to 42 Months for Fraudulently Obtaining COVID Relief Loans (2022-07-07) | PPP | conspiracy to commit wire fraud | $1,323,829 total amount of fraudulent PPP loans obtained | guilty plea | 42 months | 2022-07-07 |
| Nicole Pennington | London Woman Sentenced for Wire Fraud and Money Laundering Conspiracy Involving COVID Relief Loans | PPP/EIDL | wire fraud, conspiracy, money laundering, false statements | $1,090,398.35 fraudulently obtained SBA loan proceeds | guilty plea | 44 months | 2026-03-17 |
| Neal Harris | Lexington Couple Sentenced for Fraudulently Obtaining COVID Relief Loans | EIDL | eight counts of wire fraud | $450,000 loans sought | trial | 37 months | 2024-07-08 |
| David Christopher Lewis | Harlan County Man Sentenced to 33 Months for Fraudulently Obtaining COVID Relief Loans | PPP | wire fraud | $370,000 largest figure in the release | plea | 33 months | 2022-07-28 |
| Sandybell Fierro | Lexington Woman Sentenced for Wire Fraud and Money Laundering Related to COVID-19 Relief | EIDL | wire fraud and money laundering | $206,000 EIDL in the amount of $206,000 | guilty plea | 21 months | 2024-01-26 |
| Vonnie McDaniels | A Lexington Man, Vonnie McDaniels, 35, Was Sentenced on Friday, by Chief U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves, to 96 Months, for Wire Fraud | PPP/EIDL/Rental assistance | four counts of wire fraud, two counts of aggravated identity theft, six counts of money laundering, and two counts of committing an offense while on conditions of release | $100,000 obtained (release: a $100,000 EIDL loan for one business; restitution $262,017) | sentenced | 96 months | 2025-01-27 |
| Christopher Chapman | Former Blackberry Volunteer Fire Chief Sentenced for COVID-19 Fraud | ARPA/COVID | theft of public funds | $76,854.50 fire department grant funds embezzled (American Rescue Plan / COVID relief) | guilty plea | 12 months | 2025-04-08 |
| Shaan Ti Diyali | Fayette County Man Sentenced for Wire Fraud Related to COVID-19 Relief | SBA COVID-19 relief loan | wire fraud | trial | 6 months | 2022-11-28 |
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 9 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.