U.S. District Judge Ronnie L. White on Wednesday sentenced a Florissant woman who committed coronavirus pandemic fraud to two years in prison and ordered her to repay $787,000.
Dionneshae Forland, 51, will be on supervised release for five years after she gets out of prison.
Forland pleaded guilty in July to bank fraud, theft of government property, and four counts of wire fraud and admitted a scheme to fraudulently obtain money from the Paycheck Protection Program and the Missouri Small Business Grant Program.
Forland took advantage of relief programs intended for small businesses and employees at risk of losing their jobs and used the money for personal expenses, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Clow said in court.
From January 2021 through May 2021, Forland lied on PPP loan applications about payroll and the number of employees and submitted fraudulent documents to obtain four loans totaling $592,225. She spent the money on personal expenses.
Forland also fraudulently obtained a $150,000 loan for a company linked to her son, Dwayne Times, and two loans totaling $36,600 on behalf of two people referred to her by Times.
Forland unsuccessfully submitted four fraudulent grant applications to the Missouri Small Business Grant Program in July 2020. She did succeed in fraudulently obtaining a grant of $49,988. After Times took out $8,000 in cash, the money was “clawed back” due to officials’ fraud suspicions.
Nearly $600,000 has been seized from various accounts linked to Forland or Times.
Times, 31, pleaded guilty June 9 to one count each of wire fraud and theft of government property. Judge White sentenced him Tuesday to five years of probation and ordered Times to repay $194,850.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Clow is prosecuting the case.
