SAVANNAH, Ga. — A Telfair County woman has been sentenced to federal prison after admitting she participated in a scheme to fraudulently obtain millions of dollars in COVID-19 relief funds.
According to a news release from U.S. Attorney’s Office – Southern District of Georgia, 34-year-old Shakeena Hamilton was sentenced to 60 months in prison after she previously pled guilty to Conspiracy to Commit an Offense Against the U.S. Government.
Hamilton said she helped others to fraudulently apply for Paycheck Protection Plan (PPP) relief under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act and received kickbacks from the co-conspirators in return for her assistance.
U.S. District Court Judge Dudley H. Bowen ordered Hamilton to pay over $2.5 million in restitution, and to serve three years of supervised release after completion of her prison term.
The release says Hamilton “not only perpetrated fraud and stole from the taxpayers of the United States, but assisted others in defrauding a program set up to assist small businesses struggling during the global pandemic,” said U.S. Attorney David H. Estes.
The case was investigated by the Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General and prosecuted for the United States by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia.
The release asks anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 to report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at: https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.
