A Plymouth woman, Katherine Reynolds, 65, found herself in handcuffs and charged with wire fraud after federal authorities said she submitted phony loan applications under the Paycheck Protection Program on behalf of herself and her father, the Justice Department announced today, May 8, 2024, Wednesday.

Reynolds, who was released on conditions after her initial federal court appearance in Boston, is accused of seeking PPP loans by fraudulently claiming that she and her 86-year-old father made north of $100,000 annually from home-based massage services and backing the claims with fake tax documents that were never actually filed with the IRS, she was hit with two counts of wire fraud, which can rope in a punishment of up to two decades in prison along with three years of supervised release and fines maxing out at a quarter-million dollars.

The case, led by Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Sullivan of the Major Crimes Unit, shines a stark light on the Justice Department's ongoing battles against pandemic-relief fraud in an announcement by Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy alongside Michael J. Krol, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in New England.

As part of the government's crackdown on such schemes, the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force was established back on May 17, 2021, to "marshal the resources" and "enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud", amidst a swell of nefarious actors eyeing to exploit the billions in government aid meant for struggling businesses and workers pummeled by the pandemic's economic crunch. The program also aims at assisting agencies in safeguarding the disbursement of relief funds by leveraging "existing coordination mechanisms," they're focusing on identifying the most devious domestic and international criminals to lay hands on their ill-gotten gains from these fraudulent ploys.