Several members of the same Brooklyn family on Monday were indicted for allegedly stealing pandemic relief funds, according to prosecutors.
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, together with New York State Inspector General Lucy Lang, said six individuals, four of them Brooklyn residents and from the same family, were indicted for allegedly conspiring to steal more than $166,000 in federal COVID-19 relief funds through fraudulent applications for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans and other pandemic aid.
The defendants were identified as Karima Branche, 46, of Brooklyn; Faye Wilkie-Fields, 68, of Brooklyn; Wilworth Branche, 70, of Georgia; Carol Horton, 68, of Brooklyn; Monique Horton, 38, of Brooklyn; and Paul Neufville, 41, of Florida.
The defendants are accused of submitting fraudulent loan applications and forgiveness requests for fictitious businesses between April 2021 and October 2022, Gonzalez said. They are variously charged in a 23-count indictment with fourth-degree conspiracy, second-degree grand larceny, 11 counts of third-degree grand larceny, two counts of fourth-degree grand larceny, seven counts of first-degree falsifying business records and one count of third-degree attempted grand larceny.
In addition to the PPP loan fraud charges, Karima Branche is charged with third-degree grand larceny related to an Economic Injury Disaster Loan advance. Wilkie-Fields is charged with attempted third-degree grand larceny related to an EIDL advance. Carol Horton and Monique Horton are also charged with third- and fourth-degree grand larceny for allegedly fraudulently obtaining Pandemic Unemployment Assistance benefits from the New York State Department of Labor, Gonzalez said.
The defendants allegedly acted together to file multiple fraudulent PPP loan applications containing nearly identical financial information between April 2021 and October 2022. Each claimed to operate a self-employed business, ranging from educational services to retail to marketing and consulting, and all submitted falsified tax forms listing identical expense categories and expense amounts, according to prosecutors.
The loan applications and forgiveness requests were allegedly filed from two IP addresses linked to Neufville. Relying on these submissions, lenders disbursed federally backed funds guaranteed by the U.S. Small Business Administration, according to Gonzalez.
The defendants allegedly received a total of $166,664 in PPP loan proceeds.
“Pandemic relief programs were created to help small businesses and workers survive an unprecedented crisis," Gonzalez said in a statement. "We allege these defendants abused that system for personal gain by inventing companies and falsifying records."
