Hayden O’Byrne United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida | The Florida Bar
Raisha Kelly, a 44-year-old from Loxahatchee, Florida, was sentenced in Miami to five years in prison for her involvement in a scheme to defraud the Payment Protection Program (PPP). Post-incarceration, she will serve three years of supervised release and has been ordered to pay restitution of $443,895. The ruling was delivered by United States District Court Judge Federico A. Moreno after Kelly's conviction for conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Kelly orchestrated a scheme where she recruited individuals to apply for PPP loans with false information. These applications misrepresented the existence of sole proprietorship businesses and exaggerated their revenues. Kelly provided falsified tax returns to support the applications, receiving a 25% kickback from the applicants. To hide her role, Kelly created fake email accounts for herself and the loan applicants. She also applied for her own PPP loans with similar false claims. It was evidenced at the trial that she made approximately $106,649 from her actions, which involved thirteen individuals.
The announcement came from U.S. Attorney Hayden P. O’Byrne for the Southern District of Florida, Acting Inspector in Charge Steven L. Hodges of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), Miami Division, Special Agent in Charge Amaleka McCall-Brathwaite of the U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General (SBA OIG), Eastern Region, and Special Agent in Charge Mathew Broadhurst of the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General (DOL-OIG), Southeast Region. USPIS, SBA-OIG, and DOL-OIG led the investigation. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Daniel Bernstein, Eduardo Gardea Jr., and Gabrielle Charest-Turken.
The PPP was part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, enacted in March 2020 to aid Americans affected financially by the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of the Act, the SBA was funded to provide Economic Injury Disaster Loans to eligible small businesses suffering disruptions due to the pandemic.
In May 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to combat pandemic-related fraud, combining the Department of Justice's resources with other government agencies. The Task Force aims to identify and prosecute fraud actors and prevent fraud in relief programs. In September 2022, the Attorney General tasked the Southern District of Florida’s U.S. Attorney’s Office with leading one of three national COVID-19 Fraud Strike Force Teams.
Information on pandemic-related fraud can be reported to the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud Hotline or via their Web Complaint Form. Case documents can be accessed through the Southern District of Florida’s District Court website under case number 24-cr-20079.
