A former City of Atlanta attorney and police officer, Shelitha Robertson, has been convicted in a federal court for her role in a multimillion-dollar Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) fraud scheme. Court documents revealed Robertson was found guilty on multiple counts, including wire fraud and money laundering, for swindling over $7 million from the federal loan program that was designed to help businesses pay workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, as per WSB-TV.

Prosecutors said Robertson inflated employee counts and payroll expenses to secure the loans for her four businesses. Following the money trail, it soon became clear the funds were not used to uphold the economy but to underpin the luxury of a Rolls-Royce, a motorcycle, and a lavish 10-carat diamond ring, according to details reported by FOX 5 Atlanta. In addition to personal splurges, the DOJ claims she funneled some of the proceeds to family members, thus solidifying the web of deceit.

The gravity of her offenses was echoed in the time it took the jury to reach a verdict, with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution noting it was a deliberate 13-hour, two-day process. Robertson, who is the second defendant to be convicted in this expansive investigation, is awaiting sentencing on April 11, 2024, potentially facing a prison sentence that stacks up centuries due to the severe implications of her financial misconduct.

Robertson's conviction underscores an implicit betrayal not just of legal and civil code but of a trust once placed in her as a protector of the law both in her capacity as a police officer and as an attorney; she manipulated a system put forth to safeguard the livelihood of the American workforce at a time of excellent strife, a time when the country grappled with a pandemic that squeezed the life out of both the emaciated wallet and the lonely heart yearning for a return to normalcy from the grips of chaos and uncertainty, as documented in her trial and embraced by the justice meted out by the federal court system.