Replace printed 3/12/2024: Sheana Haslem has pleaded responsible to wire fraud for submitting fabricated info on purposes for COVID-19 aid funds.
Her sentencing is ready for Might 28 within the Southern District of Florida.
The unique story follows under.
The record of South Florida police division workers who allegedly scammed the federal authorities’s pandemic aid applications has been rising steadily over the previous two years. From Miami to Coral Springs, present and former legislation enforcement staff have been charged with fraudulently milking COVID-19-related loans — and the crackdown continues.
This time round, the accused additionally occurs to be the sister of Miami Warmth legend and retired energy ahead Udonis Haslem.
Federal prosecutors say Sheana Haslem, a staffing specialist for the Miami Police Division, submitted fraudulent purposes for the Paycheck Safety Program (PPP) and Financial Damage Catastrophe Mortgage (EIDL) program in 2020 and 2021. Haslem acquired virtually $31,000 from the aid applications by the scheme, based on the charging doc.
With the help of an “unnamed particular person,” prosecutors allege, Haslem despatched a fraudulent EIDL utility claiming to be an impartial contractor and proprietor of a profitable hair-and-nail salon enterprise. In her utility, she made bogus claims that the enterprise had 15 workers and gross income of practically $90,000 from January 31, 2019, to January 31, 2020, the feds say.
Following her request for EIDL funds, Sheana Haslem allegedly submitted a rip-off utility for a PPP mortgage for a safety officer enterprise.
Prosecutors say she falsely represented that her common month-to-month payroll for the enterprise was $8,333 and submitted an Inner Income Service Type 1040 (Schedule C) for 2019. “That fraudulent Schedule C falsely claimed that Haslem’s enterprise had a gross revenue of $102,874, no bills, and a web revenue of $102,874,” the charging doc states.
Haslem finally acquired practically $21,000 in PPP mortgage cash from a lender not named within the courtroom file. She is charged with one depend of wire fraud, which carries a most penalty of 20 years in jail and a $250,000 advantageous.
Enacted in March 2020, the Coronavirus Support, Reduction, and Financial Safety (CARES) Act licensed the Paycheck Safety Program to offer forgivable loans to companies attempting to remain afloat through the coronavirus pandemic.
The stimulus invoice additionally empowered the Small Enterprise Administration to provide out EIDL cash to qualifying small companies that have been grappling with vital monetary disruption as a consequence of COVID-related closures and lockdowns. This system provided $10,000 advances that didn’t must be paid again.
Florida turned a sizzling spot for fraudulent COVID-19 mortgage exercise, and in September 2022, the Division of Justice introduced the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace within the Southern District of Florida would lead one among three nationwide “COVID-19 fraud strike power groups.” South Florida federal prosecutors had seized greater than $23.5 million in stolen aid funds and charged defendants in additional than 80 circumstances as of September 2022.
In October 2022, an ex-Coral Springs police officer pleaded responsible to defrauding the Financial Damage Catastrophe Mortgage program. In April 2023, a former Miami police officer pleaded responsible to felony wire fraud for submitting misleading paperwork to money in on COVID-19 aid funds.
Final October, prosecutors carried out essentially the most sweeping bust on pandemic mortgage fraud in South Florida thus far, saying federal fraud expenses towards 17 Broward Sheriff’s Workplace (BSO) workers for allegedly fleecing aid applications in separate schemes. Simply final week, a former BSO jail lieutenant was charged with two counts of wire fraud after prosecutors accused him of fraudulently acquiring practically $168,000 in PPP loans.
