Alihea Jones, a Florida woman, was sentenced to 10 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for defrauding a Massachusetts housing agency and the U.S. Small Business Administration as part of the Paycheck Protection Program during the pandemic. Jones worked remotely for the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development’s RAFT program, which helps low-income residents with housing issues. After being fired, she used her access to the program’s database to make unauthorized payments to landlords and redirected the money to accounts in Georgia, including her own business account and personal account. She also received kickbacks from two individuals after the transfers. Additionally, Jones fraudulently obtained a $187,000 loan through the Paycheck Protection Program by providing false information about her business, Beauty Concepts by Alihea LLC, which had no employees. The loan was later forgiven by the SBA. Jones’s actions resulted in a loss of $222,074, with $33,225 owed to the DHCD and $188,849 owed to the SBA. The SBA forgave the loan based on false employee and payroll information provided by Jones. U.S. Attorney Leah B. Foley stated that the loans were intended to help small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic, and if used for approved purposes, the loans would be forgiven. Jones’s fraudulent activities have led to her sentencing and repayment of the stolen funds.
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