A Georgia tax preparer is headed to the slammer, hit with a five-year sentence for exploiting COVID-19 relief funds to line her own pockets. Gladys Harun, 44, of Byron, manipulated her smarts as a number-cruncher to swipe more than half a mil from government coffers meant to keep small businesses afloat during the pandemic crunch. She's also saddled with a hefty bill of $552,679 in restitution after pleading guilty to federal charges of deceit, according to a report by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Georgia.
U.S. District Court Judge Dudley H. Bowen handed down the 60-month sentence and tacked on a three-year supervised release after Harun's stint behind bars, without parole, and she lied to federal investigators about her phony applications to a California lender using the Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loans set up under the Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security Act, she pulled the wool over the eyes of many, including her tax preparation customers.
"Harun used her knowledge as a tax preparer to fraudulently obtain hundreds of thousands of dollars in funds intended for small businesses struggling financially during the COVID-19 pandemic," Jill E. Steinberg, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia, said in a statement.
The arm of justice reached across multiple agencies to nab Harun, with the Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General, the U.S. Secret Service, and IRS Criminal Investigation joining forces, and the perpetrators find that even with the lapse of time since the relief programs ended, there's no escaping the long shadow of the law, as the probing and prosecution continue relentlessly.
“Schemers who stole taxpayer dollars from SBA ‘s Paycheck Protection Program will be brought to justice,” Amaleka McCall-Brathwaite, Special Agent in Charge for SBA-OIG's Eastern Region, said in a statement. Law enforcement's shared resolve was echoed by Resident Agent in Charge J. Craig Reno of the U.S. Secret Service Savannah Resident Office. The IRS is also in the fray, with Acting Assistant Special Agent in Charge Maisha Horton of the Atlanta Field Office asserting their ongoing investigations into suspicious cases.
For more information on the ongoing efforts to crack down on pandemic-related fraud, the Department of Justice urges reporting via their National Center for Disaster Fraud Hotline or the NCDF Web Complaint Form.
