Federal district · prosecutions
U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey
30 pandemic-relief fraud prosecution records for the District of New Jersey, naming 29 defendants. By program: 19 PPP, 7 EIDL, 1 unemployment insurance, 3 other or unclassified. 6 have a case page in the archive. An amount is stated for 30 of them, from $123,489 to $151,000,000. Source dates run from 2021-12-09 to 2026-04-20.
Cases
29 defendants from 30 rows · 6 with a case page · sorted by amount, largest first
| Defendant | Case page | Program | Charge | Amount | Disposition | Sentence | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leon Haynes | United States v. Leon Haynes — U.S. District Court, D.N.J. | ERC/tax credits | $151,000,000 claimed refunds alleged in superseding indictment | jury verdict | 144 months | ||
| John Jhong | PPP | bank fraud, money laundering, and misuse of a Social Security number | $15,000,000 total federal pandemic aid sought in fraudulent loan applications | guilty plea | 36 months | 2023-11-16 | |
| Guaravjit “Raj” Singh | PPE | wire fraud | $7,100,000 intended loss | plea | 46 months | 2022-07-20 | |
| Gregory J. Blotnick | United States v. Gregory J. Blotnick — D.N.J., Newark, No. 2:21-cr-00796-BRM | PPP | wire fraud, money laundering | $6,800,000 amount sought | plea | 51 months | 2022-06-07 |
| Azhar Sarwar Rana | PPP | bank fraud, money laundering | $5,600,000 obtained | sentenced | 64 months | 2021-12-14 | |
| Tommy Hawkins | United States v. Tommy Hawkins — U.S. District Court, D.N.J. | PPP | conspiracy, bank fraud, money laundering | $5,000,000 obtained | plea | 65 months | 2024-10-21 |
| Darryl Duanne Young | PPP/EIDL | one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and one count of money laundering | $4,800,000 (DOJ release) | sentenced | 78 months | 2024-09-26 | |
| Kevin Aguilar | PPP/EIDL | conspiracy to commit bank fraud; bank fraud; conspiracy to commit wire fraud; wire fraud; conspiracy to commit money laundering; money laundering; aggravated identity theft | $3,772,567 amount_received | plea | 192 months | 2025-04-29 | |
| Daniel Dadoun | United States v. Daniel Dadoun — D.N.J., Trenton, No. 3:25-cr-00215-RK | PPP | bank fraud and money laundering | $3,239,773 PPP loans obtained | guilty plea | 41 months | 2025-09-17 |
| Rhonda Thomas | PPP, EIDL | Conspiracy to commit bank fraud (18 U.S.C. 1349); Money laundering (18 U.S.C. 1957(a)) | $3,180,000 obtained | plea | 60 months | 2023-05-02 | |
| Mohamed A. Awad | PPP/EIDL | wire fraud, money laundering | $2,410,000 CARES Act loans obtained | sentenced | 36 months | 2024-07-25 | |
| Arlen G. Encarnacion | United States v. Arlen G. Encarnacion — D.N.J., Trenton, No. 3:23-cr-00794-GC | PPP/EIDL | conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering | $2,180,000 obtained | plea | 33 months | 2024-02-21 |
| Mohamed Kamara | EIDL, UI UI/EIDL | wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud Wire fraud; conspiracy to commit wire fraud | $2,000,000 fraudulent EIDL applications and unemployment insurance benefits; restitution ordered | guilty plea | 41 months | 2023-12-14 | |
| Rocco A. Malanga | PPP | bank fraud, money laundering | $1,800,000 PPP loans obtained | guilty plea | 36 months | 2023-03-22 | |
| Stephen Bennett | PPP/EIDL/UI | defrauding COVID-19 relief programs and illegally possessing firearm | $1,730,000 defrauding COVID-19 relief programs | sentenced | 41 months | 2022-11-22 | |
| Jordan C. Larkins | PPP, EIDL | wire fraud, bank fraud, money laundering | $1,640,000 actual loss | plea | 46 months | 2022-11-30 | |
| Michael Blanc | EIDL, UI | wire fraud | $1,500,000 unemployment benefits and EIDL loans | sentenced | 42 months | 2024-03-27 | |
| Jeremy Earley | PPP | one count of engaging in a monetary transaction in criminally derived property | $1,300,000 loan amount | plea | 30 months | 2024-04-30 | |
| Anthony Mastroianni Jr. | PPP | Wire Fraud (2 counts) | $1,300,000 Investment fraud ($1.2M from investors) + fraudulent CARES Act loan ($96K) | guilty plea | 45 months | 2024-02-08 | |
| Joseph McKeon | PPP | wire fraud and money laundering | $900,000 fraudulent PPP loan and forgiveness applications amount | plea | 24 months | 2025-05-06 | |
| Edmond Haxhillari | EIDL | wire fraud and money laundering | $790,000 fraudulently obtaining | guilty plea | 12 months | 2025-05-27 | |
| Jose Tavares | UI | conspiracy to commit wire fraud | $570,000 loss | trial | 40 months | 2025-03-04 | |
| Richard Hyland | OWCP/WC | making false statements to obtain federal workers' compensation benefits (18 U.S.C. § 1920) | $479,000 restitution ordered | guilty plea | 1 years probation | 2025-10-22 | |
| Jane Batista | PPP | wire fraud, money laundering | $465,489 PPP loan proceeds received | guilty plea | 18 months | 2026-04-20 | |
| Morton Chirnomas | EIDL/UI | wire fraud | $350,000 fraudulently obtained a $150,000 loan through the COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loans program and $200,000 in unemployment insurance benefits using the names and identities of other people | guilty plea | 21 months | 2025-06-09 | |
| Bernard Lopez | PPP | bank fraud, theft of government funds | $211,886 obtained | plea | 30 months | 2021-12-09 | |
| Damaris Tineo Abreu | United States v. Damaris Valerio a/k/a Damaris Tineo Abreu — D.N.J. | PPP/EIDL/UI | wire fraud, money laundering | $194,212 COVID-19 emergency relief funds, which included loans and cash advances meant for distressed small businesses under the EIDL program and PPP, and pandemic unemployment insurance benefits | guilty plea | 20 months | 2026-04-17 |
| George Leguen | EIDL | wire fraud, money laundering | $149,900 EIDL loan proceeds received | guilty plea | 20 months | 2025-05-30 | |
| Roy John Depack Jr. | EIDL | Disaster Benefits Fraud, Business Impersonation Fraud, COVID-19 Loan Fraud, and Treasury Check Fraud | $123,489 (DOJ release) | sentenced | 42 months | 2023-09-07 |
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; 6 of the 30 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 District of New Jersey — every filing in the archive from this court, with the case pages it holds.