A 48-year-old Allentown woman has pleaded guilty to defrauding the federal government out of more than $1 million in COVID-19 pandemic relief loans, admitting she filed a string of fraudulent applications and dozens of fake tax returns using stolen identities. Mayerlyn Cordero entered guilty pleas to five counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to file false claims, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Cordero admitted to conspiring to steal more than $1 million in COVID relief funds by submitting 13 false applications between June 2020 and January 2021, according to lehighvalleylive.com. Officials say she ultimately obtained about $1,009,050 in funded loans through the scheme. The Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan program at the center of the case were both established under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, the federal law enacted in March 2020.
Fake Businesses, Inflated Payrolls
Court records describe Cordero filing two fraudulent PPP loan applications and one fraudulent EIDL application in the name of her own tax preparation business, May Tax. Those applications contained materially false information that inflated the number of employees and included a false tax document, per the same account from the U.S. Attorney's Office. The fraudulent EIDL application for May Tax similarly inflated the business's employee count, officials said.
Cordero didn't stop at her own company. She also filed false and fraudulent PPP applications in the names of two other companies, R&P Trucking and KS Transport, according to officials. Investigators say the pattern of inflated payrolls and fabricated documents ran across all of the applications tied to her name.
Stolen Identities Used for Fake Tax Returns
Beyond the loan applications, Cordero admitted to filing 23 fraudulent tax returns using stolen personally identifiable information that a co-conspirator provided to her, per the news release describing the case. Prosecutors say she defrauded the Internal Revenue Service as part of the broader conspiracy. A superseding indictment filed in October 2024 put the total scope of the alleged scheme at $5.5 million, though the article notes the figure encompasses more than the loans Cordero personally admitted to obtaining.
The case was investigated by FBI Philadelphia's Allentown Resident Agency, IRS Criminal Investigation, and the Department of Labor Office of Inspector General, the outlet reported. Cordero is scheduled to be sentenced on February 3.
What Cordero Could Face at Sentencing
Each of the five wire fraud counts carries a maximum prison term of 20 years, three years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine. The conspiracy count carries its own maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine. Under 18 U.S.C. § 371, the federal conspiracy statute provides that someone who conspires to defraud the United States, where a conspirator takes action to advance the scheme, may be imprisoned for up to five years or fined, though the enhanced penalties described in Cordero's case reflect the specific conspiracy charge she pleaded to.
Pandemic-era loan fraud has drawn sustained federal attention nationwide. The Small Business Administration has reported disbursing approximately $1.2 trillion through the COVID-19 EIDL and PPP programs during the pandemic, according to a report from legacy.sba.gov, a scale that has made fraud enforcement an ongoing priority for investigators across the country. Elsewhere in Pennsylvania, a York tax preparer pleaded guilty in December 2025 in a separate case involving fraudulent PPP loan applications, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
