Miami Real Estate Broker Who Used $381K in COVID Relief Funds on Bentley, Luxe Apartment, Gets 3.5 Years Behind Bars; Multi-Million Dollar COVID 19 Scheme Lands Ex-SC Postal Worker in Prison, and other C-Virus related stories
Miami real estate broker who used $381K in COVID relief funds on Bentley, luxe apartment, gets 3.5 years behind bars
A Miami real estate broker was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison for bilking the government out of $381,000 in COVID relief funds — which she used to splurge on a Bentley, luxury apartment and cosmetic procedures.
Daniela Rendon, 31, pleaded guilty in April to one count of wire fraud, having been indicted in February on six additional counts of wire fraud, two counts of money laundering and one count of aggravated identity theft.
Prosecutors ended up dropping the additional charges.
Rendon, a Colombian-born mother of three, said during her sentencing in Miami federal court Thursday that her actions had been “motivated by insatiable greed” — because it appeared that “everybody” was fraudulently obtaining COVID-19 relief loans at the time, the Miami Herald reported.
Once feds uncovered Rendon had been fleecing the loan programs, however, the onetime “Ultra Luxury” real estate agent realized she hadn’t been harming the “faceless entities of the U.S. government,” but rather “countless individuals and businesses” that had been walloped by an “unparalleled period of economic distress.”
US District Judge K. Michael Moore said that Rendon’s confession, along with her hefty 30-page apology, led him to hand down the lenient sentence, ultimately sparing her an additional year in the clink. —>READ MORE HERE
Multi-million dollar COVID 19 scheme lands ex-SC postal worker in prison:
A former U.S. postal worker who federal prosecutors say was a leader in a multi-million dollar scheme to defraud the government during COVID-19 is going to prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Columbia.
Tiffany McFadden, who lists addresses in Brooklyn, N.Y., and Port St. Lucie, Fla., was sentenced to 37 months in federal prison, followed by five years of court-ordered supervision, a news release from the federal prosecutor’s office said.
McFadden, 40, led an illicit plan in South Carolina that was responsible for more than 400 fraudulent applications for federal aid related to the coronavirus pandemic, prosecutors said. She and others involved in the scheme received more than $2 million, often in $20,000 increments, the news release said.
The scheme was related to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security law’s Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP. Congress had authorized the PPP effort to help businesses hurt by COVID-19, a disease so contagious it shut down businesses and left them struggling to survive.
Many fraudulent applications for aid were made in the eastern South Carolina communities of Kingstree, Johnsonville and Hemingway. McFadden is originally from the Kingstree area, her lawyer said. —>READ MORE HERE
Follow links below to relevant/related stories and resources:
CDC tracking highly mutated new COVID variant in 3 countries, including US
USA TODAY: Coronavirus Updates
YAHOO NEWS: Coronavirus Live Updates
NEW YORK POST: Coronavirus The Latest
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