Brooklyn Woman Pleads Guilty To COVID-19 Fraud Scheme And To Separate Fraud Against NYCHA
Summary
A press release of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, dated Friday, December 2, 2022, announcing that Chanette Lewis, 31, of Brooklyn pled guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. According to the Superseding Information, court filings and plea statements, from April 2020 through September 2021 Lewis defrauded New York City's COVID-19 Hotel Room Isolation Program, including by selling at least approximately 1,936 nights of fraudulently obtained hotel rooms and misusing healthcare workers' identifying information. The release states that Lewis also submitted fabricated documents to the New York City Housing Authority on behalf of approximately 35 individuals. Lewis agreed to forfeit $289,536 and pay restitution of $360,916, with sentencing by Judge Kaplan scheduled for May 18, 2023.
Summary drafted by a model from the document's text below and checked by script against that text before publication. It is a navigation aid, not a reading of what the document proves. Where AI is used
Cite this document
“Brooklyn Woman Pleads Guilty To COVID-19 Fraud Scheme And To Separate Fraud Against NYCHA.”
Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/2022-12-07-brooklyn-woman-pleads-guilty-to-covid-19-fraud-scheme-and-t-39eecb1fb5/
, SHA-256 d7c173b645babc2757874594c1f094f8a5b2425939a9cfc7365dfd16f55a5807.Full text
Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney’s Office
Southern District of New York
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Friday, December 2, 2022
Brooklyn Woman Pleads Guilty To COVID-19 Fraud Scheme
And To Separate Fraud Against NYCHA
CHANETTE LEWIS Conspired to Commit Pandemic Fraud by, Among Other Things,
Defrauding New York City’s COVID-19 Hotel Room Isolation Program and Perpetrated a
Separate Fraud Scheme Against the New York City Housing Authority
Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that
CHANETTE LEWIS pled guilty today to two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. LEWIS
participated in a scheme to commit COVID-19 pandemic fraud by, among other things, defrauding
New York City’s COVID-19 Hotel Room Isolation Program. LEWIS also committed a fraud in which
she submitted fabricated documents to the New York City Housing Authority (“NYCHA”) — such as
purported Orders of Protection bearing Judges’ names, purported letters from a District Attorney,
and purported letters from healthcare professionals attesting to alleged medical issues — in order to
secure public housing benefits for herself and her customers. LEWIS pled guilty before United
States Magistrate Judge Stewart D. Aaron. LEWIS’s case is assigned to United States District Judge
Lewis A. Kaplan.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “Chanette Lewis took advantage of multiple lifelines offered to
New York City residents in need during the COVID-19 pandemic. Each of her schemes
misappropriated identifying information of hardworking individuals, including medical
professionals whose services were vital during the pandemic. For her brazen crimes, Lewis now
faces possible prison time.”
According to the allegations contained in the Superseding Information, court filings, and statements
made during plea proceedings:
LEWIS’s COVID-19 Pandemic Fraud Scheme
From April 2020 through September 2021, LEWIS conspired to commit COVID-19 pandemic fraud
by, among other things, defrauding the COVID-19 Hotel Room Isolation Program (the
“Program”). In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, New York City created the Program. Funded
by New York City and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Program provided free hotel
rooms for qualifying individuals throughout New York City. The Program was open to (a) healthcare
workers who needed to isolate because of exposure to COVID-19; (b) patients who had tested
positive for COVID-19; (c) individuals who believed, based on their symptoms, that they were
infected with COVID-19; and (d) individuals who lived with someone who contracted COVID-19. As
stated on the City’s website describing the Program, such individuals “may qualify to self-isolate in a
hotel, free of charge, for up to 14 days if you do not have a safe place to self-isolate.” Those who
wished to book a hotel room through the Program could either call a phone number or use an online
hotel booking platform.
LEWIS defrauded the Program in several respects. First, she secured free Program hotel rooms for
herself by falsely claiming to be a healthcare worker. Second, she sold at least approximately 1,936
nights’ worth of fraudulently obtained hotel rooms to customers who were ineligible for the
Program. Third, LEWIS abused her employment, which was supposed to be in service of the
Program. Specifically, LEWIS worked at a call center that handled phone calls and certain
reservations for the Program for several months in 2020. LEWIS was hired specifically for the
Program, and as a result of her employment, she had access to legitimate healthcare workers’
identifying information. LEWIS abused her position, including by misappropriating healthcare
workers’ identifying information, revealing the Program’s inner workings to co-conspirators, and
making unauthorized sales of Program hotel rooms to ineligible individuals. For instance, LEWIS
sold a co-defendant, for $800, personal identifying information of at least five healthcare
professionals, as well as certain “codes” to use when booking hotel reservations through the
Program, such as an employee ID number and license number. LEWIS admitted, in Facebook
messages, that she had stolen doctors’ identifying information in furtherance of the scheme, writing:
“I work for 311 oem [i.e., the Office of Emergency Management] that how I got doctors licenses and
stuff . . . I work in the part that I collect they information and I do and approval the booking . . . I
take doctors and stuff certificate numbers and stuff.” LEWIS also advertised to potential customers
that, when hotels asked for a healthcare worker’s identification, LEWIS would supply a purported
paystub and a letter falsely asserting that the individual was a healthcare worker.
LEWIS’s Fraud against NYCHA
From in or around July 2020 until October 2021, LEWIS participated in a conspiracy to defraud
NYCHA. LEWIS submitted fabricated documents to NYCHA — such as purported Orders of
Protection bearing Judges’ names, purported letters from a District Attorney, and purported letters
from doctors attesting to alleged medical issues — in order to secure public housing benefits for both
herself and others, such as transfers to larger NYCHA apartments. In total, LEWIS submitted
fraudulent applications to NYCHA on behalf of approximately 35 individuals, a number of whom in
fact received the public housing benefit they requested based on fraudulent documentation.
* * *
LEWIS, 31, of Brooklyn, New York, pled guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud,
each of which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. Under the terms of her plea
agreement, LEWIS has agreed to forfeit $289,536 and to pay restitution of $360,916.
The maximum potential sentences in this case are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for
informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the
judge. LEWIS is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Kaplan on May 18, 2023, at 3:00 p.m.
One of LEWIS’s co-defendants, Tatiana Daniel, previously pled guilty to conspiracy to commit wire
fraud and is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Kaplan on March 29, 2023, at 2:30 p.m. LEWIS’s
two other co-defendants are currently scheduled to proceed to trial before Judge Kaplan on January
17, 2023.
Mr. Williams praised the outstanding efforts of agents, investigators, and analysts from the New
York City Department of Investigation (“DOI”), DOI – NYCHA Office of the Inspector General, the
New York Regional Office of the U.S. Department of Labor – Office of Inspector General (“DOL-
OIG”), and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. Mr. Williams also
thanked the New York/New Jersey High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Intelligence Analysts for
their support and assistance in this investigation. He also expressed gratitude to the New York City
Police Department, the New York State Department of Labor, and the DOL-OIG Atlanta Regional
Office for their assistance.
This matter is being handled by the Office’s Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit. Assistant U.S.
Attorney Michael D. Neff is in charge of the prosecution.
Topic(s):
Coronavirus
Financial Fraud
Component(s):
USAO - New York, Southern
Contact:
Nicholas Biase (212) 637-2600
Press Release Number:
22-372
Updated December 2, 2022
File and source
- File
- 2022-12-07-Brooklyn-Woman-Pleads-Guilty-To-COVID-19-Fraud-Scheme-And-To-Separate-Fraud-Against-NYCHA-USAO-SD-N.pdf
- Size
- 305,322 bytes
- SHA-256
- d7c173b645babc2757874594c1f094f8a5b2425939a9cfc7365dfd16f55a5807
- Original
- No public link identified.