BYRON, Ga. — A Byron woman has been ordered to pay back more than $500,000 dollars and will serve time in prison for COVID-19 relief fund fraud, according to a release from Jill E. Steinberg, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia.
44-year-old Gladys Harun was sentenced to 60 months in prison after pleading guilty to lying to a federal investigator and was ordered to pay $552,679 in restitution, and to serve three years of supervised release upon completion of her prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.
“Harun used her knowledge as a tax preparer to fraudulently obtain hundreds of thousands of dollars in funds intended for small businesses struggling financially during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said U.S. Attorney Steinberg. “Such greed-fueled theft from government programs hurts businesses legitimately in need of vital relief efforts.”
Harun was a franchisee of a tax preparation service with various locations in Georgia. She admitted that she lied to investigators from the Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General about applications she filed for herself and on behalf of others, including her customers, to obtain more than $550,000 from a California lender through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act’s Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loans.
“Harun’s sentencing shows after the expiration of the PPP and EIDL programs more than two years ago, those who fraudulently obtained funds are still being held accountable,” said Maisha Horton, Acting Assistant Special Agent in Charge, IRS Criminal Investigation, Atlanta Field Office. “There are individuals who believe they’ve gotten away with stealing taxpayers funds through those programs; however, IRS Criminal Investigation and our law enforcement partners vigorously continue investigating suspects and forwarding our findings to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for adjudication.”
The case was investigated by the Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General, the U.S. Secret Service, and IRS Criminal Investigation, and prosecuted for the United States by Southern District of Georgia Assistant U.S. Attorney L. Alexander Hamner.
Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or by clicking here.