洛杉矶女子疫情贷款诈骗获刑五年：需赔偿237万余美元
2025年2月28日，美国司法部加州中区联邦检察官办公室宣布，居住在加利福尼亚州洛杉矶县洛杉矶市Mid-City地区的女子 Casie Hynes 因疫情贷款诈骗与虚假申报税收抵免被判刑。Hynes 现年39岁，2月27日周四下午被判处60个月联邦监禁。
宣判由联邦地区法官 Hernán D. Vera 作出，法官同时责令 Hynes 支付 2,376,168 美元赔偿。Hynes 已于2024年4月承认一项电汇欺诈罪与一项虚假申报罪。
司法部称，2020年6月至2021年12月间，Hynes 以约20家公司的名义，向银行与美国小企业管理局（SBA）提交了80多份虚假的「薪资保护计划」（PPP）贷款与「经济伤害灾害贷款」（EIDL）申请。这两个项目是国会在新冠疫情期间为向企业提供政府救助而设立的。涉案公司既有原已存在的公司、也有新设立的公司，包括 Nasty Womxn Project 与 She Suite Collective 等，名义上由 Hynes 或她的亲友拥有。
在这些申请中，Hynes 经常未经授权使用他人的个人信息与签名，而这些人实际上与涉案公司并无关系。她还就公司的所谓员工人数、平均月工资，以及谁名义上拥有与控制这些空壳公司等事项提供虚假信息，并提交伪造的税务文件与银行对账单为这些虚假的 PPP 与 EIDL 申请作支撑。
银行与 SBA 依据这些虚假申请批准了贷款，疫情救助款随后被打入 Hynes 控制的银行账户，被她用于个人开支。Hynes 承认，她意图造成的损失约为 3,174,323 美元，并从这一骗局中实际获得约 2,255,244 美元的欺诈所得。
代理联邦检察官 Joseph McNally 说：「被告利用一场危机中饱私囊，把本该给有需要的企业的关键救助资金挪走。今天的判决向其他人发出一个信息：如果你窃取政府救助资金，你将被追究责任。」
在另一桩相关骗局中，Hynes 用部分与贷款诈骗相同的公司向国税局提交虚假税表以谋求退税。新冠疫情暴发后，国会制定法律，授权国税局减轻小企业的就业税负担，并对企业在员工因疫情休病假或家庭假、无法工作期间支付的工资给予补偿；2020与2021纳税年度，国税局向受疫情严重影响的企业提供员工留任抵免，以及带薪病假与家庭假抵免。
2021年5月至2022年4月间，Hynes 促成提交了12份基于虚假陈述的税表，分别以 Nasty Womxn Project LLC、She Suite Ventures 与 Casie Hynes Consulting 的名义申请退税。她明知这些公司几乎没有或根本没有经营活动，没有她所申报的那么多员工，也没有支付过她在税表中申报的季度工资。通过这些虚假申报，Hynes 图谋获取约 1,255,703 美元的疫情税收抵免与退税，国税局一分也未支付。
本案由国税局刑事调查局调查，重大欺诈科助理联邦检察官 Kristen A. Williams 负责起诉。司法部另说明，司法部长已于2021年5月17日设立新冠欺诈执法特别工作组，统筹司法部与联邦政府各机构的资源，加强打击与防范疫情相关欺诈的工作。
（来源：美国司法部）
Los Angeles Woman Sentenced to Five Years for COVID Loan Fraud: Ordered to Pay More Than $2.37 Million in Restitution
On February 28, 2025, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California announced that Casie Hynes, a woman from the Mid-City area of Los Angeles, a city in Los Angeles County, California, was sentenced for COVID-19 loan fraud and for falsely seeking pandemic tax credits. Hynes, 39, was sentenced late on Thursday afternoon, February 27, to 60 months in federal prison.
United States District Judge Hernán D. Vera imposed the sentence and also ordered Hynes to pay $2,376,168 in restitution. In April 2024, Hynes pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of false claims.
According to the Justice Department, from June 2020 to December 2021, Hynes submitted more than 80 fraudulent applications for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans and Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) from banks and the United States Small Business Administration (SBA) in the names of approximately 20 companies. Congress designed these programs to provide government relief to businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. The applications were submitted in the names of both existing and newly created companies, including Nasty Womxn Project and She Suite Collective and others purportedly owned by Hynes or her friends and family members.
On those applications, Hynes often used the personal information and signatures of other people without their authorization and even though those people were not involved with the companies. She also provided false information, including as to the number of purported employees at the companies, the companies' average monthly payroll, and who purportedly owned and controlled these sham businesses, and she submitted fabricated tax documents and bank statements in support of the fraudulent PPP and EIDL applications.
In reliance on the fraudulent applications, banks and the SBA approved PPP and EIDL loans for the various companies she created and then disbursed the COVID-19 relief funds into bank accounts she controlled and used to pay for her own personal expenses. Hynes admitted that she intended to cause approximately $3,174,323 in losses and that she received approximately $2,255,244 in fraudulent proceeds from this scheme.
"The defendant exploited a crisis to line her own pockets, diverting vital relief funds from businesses that needed the money," said Acting United States Attorney Joseph McNally. "The sentence imposed today sends a message to others that you will be held accountable if you steal government relief funds."
In a related scheme, Hynes used some of the same companies named in her PPP and EIDL fraud to submit bogus tax forms to the IRS requesting refunds. Following COVID-19's outbreak, Congress enacted laws authorizing the IRS to reduce the employment tax burdens of small businesses and reimburse those businesses for wages paid to employees who were on sick or family leave and could not work because of the pandemic. During the tax years 2020 and 2021, the IRS offered the Employee Retention Credit and paid sick and family leave credit to businesses that were significantly impacted by COVID-19.
From May 2021 to April 2022, Hynes caused to be submitted 12 tax forms that sought refunds based on false statements on behalf of Nasty Womxn Project LLC, She Suite Ventures, and Casie Hynes Consulting. Hynes knew these companies had little to no business operations, did not have the number of employees she claimed, and did not pay the quarterly wages she claimed in the tax forms. Through these false claims, Hynes fraudulently sought approximately $1,255,703 in COVID-19 tax credits and tax refunds, none of which the IRS paid.
IRS Criminal Investigation investigated this matter, and Assistant United States Attorney Kristen A. Williams of the Major Frauds Section prosecuted the case. The Justice Department also noted that on May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Justice Department in partnership with agencies across the federal government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud.
(Source: U.S. Department of Justice)
来源：美国司法部
发布：GSM·美国（发布链接）
图片来源：图：位于洛杉矶市中心的春街法院大楼（原美国联邦法院大楼，左侧为洛杉矶市政厅），本案由美国司法部加州中区联邦检察官办公室起诉（照片：Los Angeles，CC BY-SA 3.0，Wikimedia Commons）。 / Photo: The Spring Street Courthouse (the former U.S. Courthouse) in downtown Los Angeles, with Los Angeles City Hall at left; the case was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California (photo: Los Angeles, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons).
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