Three people were sentenced on Tuesday for unlawfully acquiring and misappropriating Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, which the U.S. Small Business Administration backed as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, officials stated.
These individuals were implicated in a COVID-19 fraud scheme.
Khadijah X. Chapman, 59, of Atlanta, was sentenced to three years and ten months in prison; Daniel C. Labrum, 42, of South Jordan, Utah, was sentenced to two years in prison; and Eric J. O’Neil, 58, of Bethel, Connecticut, was sentenced to two years and three months in prison, officials stated.
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Chapman, Labrum, and O’Neil fraudulently obtained PPP loans for fictitious businesses in 2020 and 2021.
The defendants worked with co‑conspirators to falsify information.
They submitted fraudulent documents to financial institutions in Boise and elsewhere to collectively obtain approximately $3.5 million in relief funding intended for small businesses struggling with the economic impact of COVID-19.
Chapman was convicted of bank fraud in November 2023. Labrum and O’Neil pleaded guilty in 2023 to bank fraud.
Trial Attorneys Jennifer Bilinkas and Tamara Livshiz of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean Mazorol for the District of Idaho prosecuted the cases.
Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Justice Department’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866‑720‑5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.