Federal district · prosecutions
U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia
20 pandemic-relief fraud prosecution records for the Western District of Virginia, naming 20 defendants. By program: 1 PPP, 15 unemployment insurance, 4 other or unclassified. 3 have a case page in the archive. An amount is stated for 11 of them, from $9,698 to $2,000,000. Source dates run from 2021-12-17 to 2026-03-11.
Cases
20 defendants · 3 with a case page · sorted by amount, largest first
| Defendant | Case page | Program | Charge | Amount | Disposition | Sentence | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jaimeka Michelle Austin | PPP/EIDL | one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of money laundering | $2,000,000 (DOJ release) | sentenced | 96 months | 2026-03-11 | |
| Farren Gaddis Ricketts | CARES Act - Unemployment Insurance | conspiracy that defrauded the government of more than $1.5 million in pandemic-related unemployment benefits | $1,500,000 conspiracy loss | admitted to heading a conspiracy | 120 months | 2021-12-17 | |
| Jeffrey R. Tackett | UI | conspiring with others to defraud the government of pandemic-related unemployment benefits | $500,000 (DOJ release) | sentenced | 102 months | 2022-01-06 | |
| Joseph Hass | UI/PUA | conspiracy to defraud the United States | $341,205 restitution ordered | sentenced | 27 months | 2024-2025 | |
| Terrence Brooks Vilacha | UI/PUA | conspiring to defraud the United States, commit program fraud, and commit mail fraud | $341,205 restitution ordered | sentenced | 18 months | 2024-2025 | |
| Crystal Shaw | United States v. Crystal Samantha Shaw | Pandemic unemployment | $287,459 restitution ordered | guilty plea | 60 months | ||
| Jonathan Webb | United States v. Jonathan Scott Webb | Pandemic unemployment | $150,281.30 restitution ordered | guilty plea | 48 months | ||
| Josef Brown | United States v. Josef Ludwig Brown | Pandemic unemployment | $119,660 restitution ordered | guilty plea | 35 months | ||
| Hayleigh McKenzie Wolfe | UI/PUA | knowingly making materially false and fraudulent statements and representations on a claim for emergency assistance benefits | $13,978 restitution ordered | guilty plea | 13 months | 2024-2025 | |
| Justin Meadows | UI/PUA | conspiracy to commit mail fraud | $11,544 restitution ordered | guilty plea | 18 months | 2024-2025 | |
| Jason Dale Worley | UI/PUA | Conspiracy; program fraud; mail fraud | $9,698 restitution ordered | guilty plea | 13 months | 2025-10-14 | |
| Brian Addair | UI/PUA | conspiracy to defraud the United States, program fraud, and mail fraud | guilty plea | 24 months | 2024-2025 | ||
| Cara Camille Bailey | UI/PUA | conspiring to defraud the United States, commit program fraud, and commit mail fraud | sentenced | 19 months | 2024-2025 | ||
| Christopher Kirk Webb | UI/PUA | Conspiracy to defraud the United States, commit program fraud, and commit mail fraud | sentenced | 20 months | 2024-2025 | ||
| Clinton Michael Altizer | UI/PUA | conspiracy to defraud the United States, program fraud, and mail fraud | sentenced | 13 months | 2024-2025 | ||
| Daniel Horton | UI/PUA | defrauded the United States, committed program fraud and mail fraud in connection with a scheme involving the filing of fraudulent claims for pandemic unemployment benefits | sentenced | 21 months | 2024-2025 | ||
| Jeramy Blake Farmer | UI/PUA | conspiring to defraud the United States, commit program fraud, and commit mail fraud | sentenced | 13 months | 2024-2025 | ||
| Jessica Lester | UI/PUA | Conspiracy to defraud the United States, program fraud, and mail fraud | guilty plea | 19 months | 2024-2025 | ||
| Stephanie Amber Barton | UI/PUA | conspiracy to defraud the United States, commit program fraud, and commit mail fraud | conspiracy | 13 months | 2024-2025 | ||
| United States v. Brown et al. (W.D. Va. 17-defendant Pandemic Unemployment Assistance scheme) | UI | 48 months |
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; 3 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 Western District of Virginia — every filing in the archive from this court, with the case pages it holds.