Lexington Man Pleads Guilty to COVID-19 Fraud

Summary

Press release of the U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Kentucky, dated June 5, 2025. Tommie Joyner of Lexington pleaded guilty before Magistrate Judge Edward Atkins to wire fraud in a scheme to unlawfully obtain COVID-19 pandemic relief benefits. According to the plea agreement, from March 2020 to June 2022 he fabricated information about employment history, residence and business ventures. He was paid $15,269.76 by the Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency after falsely claiming to live in Detroit, obtained $83,925.47 from New York and Indiana, and received $1,000 in EIDL advances although his two EIDL applications were denied. Sentencing is scheduled for August 22, 2025, with a maximum of 20 years in prison.

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Full text

PRESS RELEASE


Lexington Man Pleads Guilty to COVID-19
Fraud
Thursday, June 5, 2025

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Kentucky

LEXINGTON, Ky.— A Lexington, Ky., man, Tommie Joyner, 45, has pleaded guilty before
U.S. Magistrate Judge Edward Atkins to wire fraud arising out of a scheme to unlawfully
obtain various COVID-19 pandemic relief benefits.

In 2020, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, passed in
response to the COVID-19 pandemic, established several new unemployment
compensation programs that were funded primarily by the federal government and
administered by state workforce agencies. Later that same year, the President
authorized the Federal Emergency Management Agency to expend money for lost wage
assistance, as a supplement to unemployment compensation programs. The CARES Act
also expanded existing federal programs, including the Economic Injury Disaster Loan
(EIDL) Program administered by the Small Business Administration (SBA). The EIDL
Program provides loans for small businesses suffering from an economic disaster.

According to his plea agreement, from March 2020 to June 2022, Joyner made material
false statements in order to obtain money from various government relief and Covid-19
relief programs. Joyner fabricated information about employment history, residence,
and business ventures, and applied for relief funds using that false information. On May
19, 2020, Joyner filed an unemployment benefits application with the Michigan
Unemployment Insurance Agency, falsely claiming that he resided in Detroit, Michigan,
when in fact he was a resident of Lexington, Kentucky. As a result of the
misrepresentation, he was paid $15,269.76 in unemployment assistance.

Similarly, from March 2020 to June 2022, Joyner applied for pandemic unemployment
benefits in Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Tennessee, and New York, all of which contained
false statements and representations. His fraudulent applications to New York and
Indiana were approved and he obtained $83,925.47 in unemployment benefits. Joyner
also applied for two EIDLs with the SBA, seeking $62,500. While the fraudulent EIDL
applications were ultimately denied, the SBA still paid Joyner $1,000 in EIDL advances.
All of Joyner’s applications contained false statements.

Paul McCaffrey, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky;
Joseph V. Cuffari Ph.D., Inspector General, Department of Homeland Security (DHS-OIG);
and Mathew Broadhurst, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Department of Labor, Office of
Inspector General (DOL-OIG), Southeast Region, jointly announced the guilty plea.

The investigation was conducted by DHS-OIG and DOL-OIG. Assistant U.S. Attorney
Brittany Dunn-Pirio is prosecuting the matter on behalf of the United States.

Joyner is scheduled to appear for sentencing on August 22, 2025. He faces a maximum
of 20 years in prison. Joyner will be required to pay a minimum of $100,195.23 in
restitution. However, the Court must consider the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the
applicable federal sentencing statutes before imposing its sentence.

On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement
Task Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with
agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-
related fraud. The Task Force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most
culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with
administering relief programs to prevent fraud by, among other methods, augmenting
and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and
techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing
information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts. For more information
on the Department’s response to the pandemic, please
visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus.

Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can
report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud
(NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form
at: https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.

                                       — END —

Contact
CONTACT: Gabrielle Dudgeon

PHONE: (859) 685-4887

E-MAIL: gabrielle.dudgeon@usdoj.gov
Updated June 6, 2025

Topics
CORONAVIRUS

FINANCIAL FRAUD
Component
USAO - Kentucky, Eastern


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