A federal court in Missouri has imposed an 11-year prison term on a 29-year-old Kansas City resident after she admitted to orchestrating a sweeping fraud and identity theft scheme tied to COVID-19 relief and stolen U.S. Treasury checks.
According to the Department of Justice, the case represents one of the most brazen instances of pandemic aid abuse in recent memory.
The DOJ says Briauna Adams masterminded a dual operation built around forging or stealing official Treasury checks while simultaneously filing fraudulent Payment Protection Program (PPP) applications under the CARES Act using stolen identities and false data.
In a search of her home in Raymore, Missouri, investigators recovered 253 stolen Treasury checks.
On August 15, 2024, when Adams attempted to deposit a fraudulent Treasury check in the amount of $1,445,443.69 into an investment account registered in her name, the deposit was reversed after financial institutions flagged the irregularities as fraud.
The DOJ says Adams was responsible for over $540,000 in PPP fraud, and over $3,000,000 in stolen Treasury checks.
Federal prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri handled the case with assistance from IRS Criminal Investigation and the Kansas City Police Department. In handing down the sentence, the court emphasized the severity of combining identity theft with the wholesale misuse of government relief funds.
In the wake of the 2020 pandemic era, oversight agencies such as the Government Accountability Office have documented rampant and massive fraud stemming from the various COVID-19 relief programs.
Last week, the feds uncovered a $17,000,000 fraud ring. According to court filings, the group of fraudsters submitted fraudulent applications to both the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program. The programs were created during the pandemic to provide emergency financial assistance to small businesses and self-employed individuals.
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