Texas Business Owner Sentenced for COVID-19 Relief Fraud
Summary
A press release published 2025-06-25 by the Justice Department announcing that Shantelle Hawkins, 43, of DeSoto, Texas, was sentenced to three years and five months in prison for a scheme to file fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program applications. According to the release, between around May 2020 and March 2021 Hawkins conspired to submit 17 fraudulent PPP loan applications for companies she or her relatives owned or controlled, using false payroll and tax information. It states that she used some of the money to pay off a 2015 Maserati Ghibli and to buy property in the Dallas area, that she pleaded guilty on Oct. 8, 2024 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and that she was ordered to pay more than $1.8 million in restitution and forfeit the residence bought with the proceeds.
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“Texas Business Owner Sentenced for COVID-19 Relief Fraud.”
Original at www.justice.gov. Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/2025-06-25-texas-business-owner-sentenced-for-covid-19-relief-fraud-fd-2ad5d49755/
, SHA-256 f5cf79a7d00e6c9315a8b13d498171fa7fd2ba292bd056ff28ee8bcaf75207eb.Full text
A Texas woman was sentenced today to three years and five months in prison for her participation in a scheme to file fraudulent applications for loans under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) that the Small Business Administration (SBA) guaranteed under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act. According to court documents, between around May 2020, and March 2021, Shantelle Hawkins, 43, of DeSoto, conspired to submit 17 fraudulent PPP loan applications on behalf of companies she or her relatives owned or controlled. The applications contained false statements about payroll and tax information, which the SBA used to calculate the amount of PPP funds to which the applicant-companies would be entitled. Hawkins used some of the money she obtained from the loans for personal expenses, including to pay off her 2015 Maserati Ghibli luxury car and to purchase property in the greater Dallas area. Hawkins pleaded guilty on Oct. 8, 2024, to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. At sentencing, Hawkins was ordered to pay more than $1.8 million in restitution and to forfeit the residence purchased with proceeds from the fraud. Matthew R. Galeotti, Head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; Acting U.S. Attorney Nancy E. Larson for the Northern District of Texas; and Special Agent in Charge R. Joseph Rothrock of the FBI’s Dallas Field Office made the announcement. The FBI is investigating the case. Trial Attorneys Dermot Lynch and Kashan Pathan of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section prosecuted the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Elyse Lyons for the Northern District of Texas is handling asset forfeiture. Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Justice Department’s National Center for Disaster Fraud Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form .
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