Federal district · prosecutions
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina
17 pandemic-relief fraud prosecution records for the Eastern District of North Carolina, naming 17 defendants. By program: 11 PPP, 4 EIDL, 1 unemployment insurance, 1 other or unclassified. None has a case page in the archive. An amount is stated for 14 of them, from $15,000 to $15,000,000. Source dates run from 2022-02-22 to 2026-04-10.
Cases
17 defendants · 0 with a case page · sorted by amount, largest first
| Defendant | Case page | Program | Charge | Amount | Disposition | Sentence | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Edward Sheldon Whitaker | Ringleaders of National COVID-19 Fraud Scheme Sentenced to 204 Months in Federal Prison | PPP/EIDL | conspiracy to commit money laundering | $15,000,000 facilitated, jointly with Schunda Coleman (release: "Whitaker and Coleman facilitated more than $15 million in fake PPP and Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program (EIDL) disbursements"; no per-person amount stated) | plea | 120 months | 2025-12-04 |
| Quentin Allen Jackson | Former Harlem Globetrotter Sentenced to Seven Years in Prison in COVID-19 Fraud Scheme | PPP | conspiracy to commit money laundering | $4,000,000 obtained (release: nearly $4 million of fraudulent PPP disbursements attributable to him) | sentenced | 84 months | 2024-12-13 |
| Reynold Eugene Mullen | Durham Man Sentenced to Seven Years for Role in Mortgage and COVID-19 Pandemic Fund Frauds | PPP/EIDL | mortgage and COVID-19 Pandemic Fund Frauds | $2,900,000 over $1,300,000 in mortgages plus over $1,600,000 in EIDL and PPP proceeds obtained (release) | sentenced | 84 months | 2024-07-09 |
| Tristan Bishop Pan | Garner Man Sentenced for $1.7 Million COVID-19 Fraud | PPP | false statements, wire fraud | $1,700,000 PPP loan benefits received | guilty plea | 20 months | 2022-03-16 |
| Loretta Clarice James | Two Women Sentenced for Running a More Than $1.5 Million COVID-19 Fraud Scheme | PPP/EIDL | conspiracy, wire fraud, identity theft | $1,500,000 largest figure in the release | sentenced | 96 months | 2025-05-09 |
| TYREEK RASHEED EXUM | Eastern NC Man Sentenced to Over Four Years for Role in $1 Million Covid Fraud Scheme | EIDL/UI | conspiracy, wire fraud, false statements | $1,000,000 proceeds received | plea | 50 months | 2025-03-07 |
| Erica McMillian | Participant in $542,000 Family Covid Fraud Ring Sentenced | EIDL | making false statements to Small Business Administration | $542,288 total family covid fraud ring proceeds (EIDL) | plea | 10 months | 2026-04-10 |
| Earl Lamont Taylor | Raleigh Basketball Scout and Life Coach Sentenced to Prison for Obtaining Nearly $300,000 in COVID-19 Relief Loans | PPP | one count each of bank fraud and wire fraud | $291,665.50 obtained | plea | 72 months | 2025-06-23 |
| Joe Lewis Jefferson | Nashville Man Sentenced to Four Years for COVID Fraud | Rental assistance | conspiracy to commit mail fraud, failure to file a tax return | $279,000 actual loss | plea | 48 months | 2025-01-16 |
| Tyrone Foreman | UI | conspiracy to distribute heroin, fentanyl, and marijuana, and conspiracy to commit wire fraud | $250,000 proceeds received | plea | 360 months | 2023-03-31 | |
| Dexter Duncan | Snow Hill Man Sentenced to Prison for Role in COVID-19 Fraud Scheme | EIDL | laundering fraudulently obtained Economic Injury Disaster Loan benefits | $180,988 obtained | plea | 31 months | 2023-03-08 |
| Shawn Allen Farmer | EIDL | fraudulently obtaining Covid-19 disaster loans, and for engaging in bank fraud using stolen Social Security numbers | $92,000 largest figure in the release | sentenced | 15 months | 2022-02-22 | |
| Sonya Lenise Davis | Wake Forest Woman Sentenced to Prison for $85K COVID Fraud | PPP/EIDL | conspiracy, wire fraud | $85,000 PPP loans fraudulently obtained by Davis and others | plea | 6 months | 2025-04-28 |
| Darnell William King | Clayton Man with Gun Sentenced to Over Five Years in Prison for COVID-19 Fraud | PPP | conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon | $15,000 proceeds received | plea | 70 months | 2025-06-27 |
| Schunda Coleman | Ringleaders of National COVID-19 Fraud Scheme Sentenced to 204 Months in Federal Prison | PPP/EIDL | conspiracy to commit money laundering | plea | 84 months | 2025-12-04 | |
| Toni A. Smith | Over 20 Defendants Sentenced to Prison in Multi-Million Dollar National COVID-19 Fraud Scheme | PPP | conspiracy to obtain fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans | sentenced | 15 months | 2024-08-21 | |
| Isaac Lamont Dawson | Wilson Business Owner Latest to be Sentenced in National COVID-19 Fraud Scheme — USAO North Carolina, Eastern | PPP | conspiracy to obtain fraudulent PPP loans | plea | 36 months | 2023-09-21 |
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 17 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 — 2 rows here: 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 North Carolina — every filing in the archive from this court, with the case pages it holds.