Federal district · prosecutions
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
27 pandemic-relief fraud prosecution records for the Eastern District of Virginia, naming 27 defendants. By program: 17 PPP, 3 EIDL, 6 unemployment insurance, 1 other or unclassified. 2 have a case page in the archive. An amount is stated for 22 of them, from $100,000 to $44,000,000. Source dates run from 2020-11-13 to 2026-06-09.
Cases
27 defendants · 4 with a case page · sorted by amount, largest first
| Defendant | Case page | Program | Charge | Amount | Disposition | Sentence | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thanh Rudin | Defendants Sentenced for False Tax Returns for Professional Athletes and PPP Loan Fraud (DOJ, 2023) | PPP | conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) | $44,000,000 total losses resulting from tax fraud and PPP loan fraud schemes | sentenced | 34 months | 2023-02-17 |
| Quin Ngoc Rudin | A California Man Was Sentenced Today to 10 Years in Prison — Quin Ngoc Rudin, 55, Alexandria, Va. (Tax Fraud, PPP Fraud) | PPP | conspiracy to commit tax fraud; PPP loan fraud (wire fraud) | $43,000,000 loss alleged | plea | 120 months | 2022-10-05 |
| Tarik Jaafar | Tarik Jaafar PPP and EIDL case — U.S. District Court, E.D. Va. | PPP | conspiracy to defraud the Paycheck Protection Program | $6,600,000 largest figure in the release | sentenced | 12 months | 2020-11-13 |
| Nikki Mitchum | Woman Sentenced for $5.8 Million COVID-19 Loan Fraud Conspiracy | PPP/EIDL | conspiracy to commit wire fraud affecting a financial institution | $5,800,000 intended loss | plea | 51 months | 2023-03-08 |
| Foad "David" Darakhshan | Member of $3M COVID-19 Loan Fraud Conspiracy Sentenced | PPP/EIDL | conspiracy to commit wire fraud; bank fraud | $3,000,000 obtained | plea | 33 months | 2022-07-08 |
| Monika Jaworska | United States v. Monika Jaworska — U.S. District Court, E.D. Va. | PPP | $1,400,000 joint PPP proceeds received; time served about 75 days | guilty plea | 2.5 months | ||
| Maria Gene Reich | COVID-19 | wire fraud | $1,000,000 actual loss | sentenced | 48 months | 2024-08-22 | |
| Dwaynald Darion Gibbs | Norfolk man sentenced to over five years in prison for using other people’s identities to defraud COVID-19 pandemic relief programs | UI | mail fraud, aggravated identity theft | $658,966 actual loss | plea | 70 months | 2025-04-17 |
| Baltej Singh Brar | New York tax preparer sentenced to two years in prison | PPP | making false statements on loan applications | $550,000 actual losses from falsified PPP loan applications | plea | 24 months | 2025-05-09 |
| Lakeia Simone Grant | Newport News woman sentenced to over seven years in prison for COVID era unemployment insurance fraud scheme | UI/Rental assistance | conspiracy, mail fraud, aggravated identity theft, obstruction | $546,576 largest figure in the release | sentenced | 88 months | 2026-05-08 |
| Davon Hunter | Man Sentenced for Successive COVID Fraud and Bank Fraud Schemes | PPP | orchestrating successive schemes to defraud a COVID-19 relief program and steal funds through altered checks | $500,000 largest figure in the release | sentenced | 84 months | 2024-03-01 |
| Lynette Ebony Morse | UI/PUA | Conspiracy | $495,000 approved benefits | sentenced | 78 months | 2025-10-09 | |
| Tiara Jenee Bryant | DOJ Usao Edva Press Release Former Navy Servicemember Sentenced Two Years Prison Defraudi 2026 03 13 | EIDL | wire fraud | $428,600 attempted | sentenced | 24 months | 2026-03-13 |
| Brian Renard Manley Jr. | Norfolk Man Sentenced to Over Three Years in Prison for Laundering Funds Obtained from a Pandemic Relief Program | PPP | money laundering and unlawful monetary transactions | $350,000 obtained | trial | 46 months | 2026-04-02 |
| Andrew Tezna | Senior NASA Employee Sentenced for COVID-19 Related Loan Fraud | PPP/EIDL/UI | fraudulent applications for COVID-19 economic relief loans and benefits, false Financial Disclosure Report | $350,000 PPP and EIDL loan applications and unemployment benefits | not specified | 18 months | 2021-07-15 |
| Scott Suber | E.D. Va. No. 2:20-cr-00110 | PPP | bank fraud | $350,000 PPP loan proceeds received | plea | 24 months | 2021-05-20 |
| Darla Dickens | UI/PUA | conspiracy to commit wire fraud | $260,000 restitution ordered | sentenced | 45 months | 2023-11-17 | |
| Dashawn Hunter | UI | unemployment insurance (UI) benefit fraud conspiracy | $221,118 proceeds received | plea | 51 months | 2026-06-09 | |
| Joseph Cherry | E.D. Va. No. 4:20-cr-00027 | PPP/EIDL | COVID-19 related loan fraud scheme | $196,900 proceeds received | sentenced | 51 months | 2021-03-11 |
| James Victor Punelli | Judgment — United States v. James Victor Punelli, Eastern District of Virginia (Document 17) | EIDL | false statements; theft of government funds (18 U.S.C. 1001, 641) | $141,000 restitution ordered | plea | 2 years probation | 2022-03-07 |
| Sheila C. Bynum-Coleman | Judgment — United States v. Sheila C. Bynum-Coleman, Eastern District of Virginia (Document 136) | PPP/UI | $120,955 restitution ordered | 24 months | |||
| Marlon McKnight | Hampton Man Sentenced for COVID-19 Loan Fraud While in BOP Halfway House | PPP/EIDL | falsely applying for loans intended to grant COVID-19 relief | $100,000 intended loss / amount sought | sentenced | 27 months | 2022-07-07 |
| Ryan Macaulay | Motion to Extend Bureau of Prisons Reporting Date — United States v. Ryan Macaulay (Dkt. 160) | PPP | 24 months | 2025-09-25 | |||
| Obinna Nwafor | New York Man Sentenced for $600,000 COVID Fraud Using Stolen Identities | EIDL, UI | fraudulent scheme to obtain pandemic benefits using the stolen identities of at least 20 other people | sentenced | 42 months | 2024-02-08 | |
| Bennie Earl Magee | PPP, EIDL | conspiracy | sentenced | 60 months | 2023-09-08 | ||
| Michael Gilcher | PPP, EIDL | conspiracy | sentenced | 12 months | 2023-09-08 | ||
| Sadie Mitchell | Midlothian Woman Sentenced for $1.8 M COVID-19 Fraud Using Information Obtained from Her State Employment | UI | Conspiracy to commit mail fraud | plea | 70 months | 2022-09-13 |
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; 2 of the 27 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 Eastern District of Virginia — every filing in the archive from this court, with the case pages it holds.