Federal district · prosecutions
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
20 pandemic-relief fraud prosecution records for the Southern District of New York, naming 17 defendants. By program: 11 PPP, 4 EIDL, 5 unemployment insurance. 6 have a case page in the archive. An amount is stated for 20 of them, from $294,624 to $71,711,893.07. Source dates run from 2021-08-11 to 2025-12-01.
Cases
17 defendants from 20 rows · 4 with a case page · sorted by amount, largest first
| Defendant | Case page | Program | Charge | Amount | Disposition | Sentence | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rafael Martinez | Rafael Martinez MBE Capital PPP case — U.S. District Court, S.D.N.Y. | PPP | conspiring to commit wire fraud | $71,711,893.07 restitution ordered $43,600,000 personal proceeds; $823M loans issued separately | plea guilty plea | 54 months | 2023-07-27 |
| Amos Mundendi | USA v. Bella — Amos Mundendi filings, U.S. District Court, S.D.N.Y. | PPP/EIDL | participation in a scheme to fraudulently obtain over $30 million in Government-guaranteed loans | $30,000,000 Government-guaranteed loans designed to provide relief to small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic | guilty plea | 42 months | 2023-02-14 |
| Muge Ma | PPP/EIDL | bank fraud, aggravated identity theft | $20,000,000 amount sought | plea | 52 months | 2022-04-21 | |
| Yohauris Rodriguez Hernandez | UI | conspiracy to commit wire fraud, theft of government funds, and aggravated identity theft | $16,100,000.00 (DOJ release) | sentenced | 79 months | 2024-01-30 | |
| Jacob Carter | EIDL | conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft | $10,000,000 amount sought | jury trial | 132 months | 2025-02-27 | |
| ADEDAYO ILORI | USA v. Ilori et al — U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York | PPP/EIDL | identity theft and COVID-19 loan fraud scheme | $10,000,000 amount sought | sentenced | 300 months | 2023-10-23 |
| SHENG-WEN CHENG | PPP, EIDL | major fraud against the United States, bank fraud, securities fraud, wire fraud | $7,000,000 attempted | plea | 72 months | 2021-08-11 | |
| Ameet Goyal | PPP | wire fraud, false statements, bank fraud, false claims | $3,600,000 (DOJ release) | sentenced | 96 months | 2022-03-03 | |
| Juan Carlos Castro Gonzalez | UI | tax fraud, conspiracy, wire fraud | $3,363,000 COVID-19 tax fraud and UI fraud (intended losses >$3.3M; actual losses >$570K) | guilty plea | 40 months | 2023-01-04 | |
| Alicia Ayers and Andrea Ayers | EIDL | conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and making false statements | $3,000,000 attempted | plea | 42 months | 2024-04-26 | |
| Konrad Bicher | PPP, Real Estate Fraud | false statements, wire fraud | $2,227,371.58 actual loss | plea | 51 months | 2024-07-22 | |
| Elizier Scher | EIDL | wire fraud, false statements | $1,648,900 fraudulently obtained EIDL loans | guilty plea | 13 months | 2024-01-17 | |
| DOUGLAS RAYMOND ARNTSEN | EIDL | scheme to defraud the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) of more than $1.4 million in government-funded loans | $1,400,000 (DOJ release) | sentenced | 108 months | 2024-05-21 | |
| Wilkins Estrella | UI/PUA | conspiracy to commit wire fraud; aggravated identity theft | $951,000 restitution ordered | guilty plea | 24 months | 2025-12-01 | |
| Tatiana Daniel | PPP/EIDL/UI/Hotel Isolation UI/PPP/EIDL | conspiracy to commit wire fraud | $401,206 obtained; restitution ordered | sentenced guilty plea | 33 months | 2024-03-06 2024 | |
| Chanette Lewis | United States v. Chanette Lewis — S.D.N.Y., No. 21 Mag. 9354 (1:21-mj-09354-UA) | UI/COVID-19/NYCHA UI / COVID-19 Hotel Room Isolation Program | conspiracy to commit COVID-19 pandemic fraud, unemployment benefits fraud, NYCHA fraud Conspiracy to commit wire fraud (COVID-19 Hotel Room Isolation Program and unemployment benefits fraud); NYCHA fraud | $360,330 obtained; restitution | sentenced | 36 months | 2024-02-08 2024 |
| Tatiana Benjamin | Hotel Isolation Program/UI/PPP/EIDL | Conspiracy to commit wire fraud | $294,624 restitution | guilty plea | 12.03 months | 2024 |
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 20 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 New York — every filing in the archive from this court, with the case pages it holds.