Source: Office of United States Attorneys
BOSTON – A Florida woman was sentenced today in federal court in Boston for defrauding a Massachusetts housing agency where she worked in 2022, along with defrauding the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) in connection with the pandemic Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).
Alihea Jones, 51, of Brandon, Fla., was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Patti B. Saris to 10 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release. Jones was also ordered to pay $222,074 in restitution and to forfeit $222,074. In September 2024, Jones pleaded guilty to five counts of wire fraud.
In 2022, Jones worked remotely for the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) for six months where she worked with the Residential Aid to Families in Transition (RAFT) program, which provides funds to assist low-income Massachusetts residents facing eviction and other housing emergencies. Immediately after she was terminated, Jones, who was still logged into the RAFT database, accessed the files of four RAFT program participants and authorized electronic payments to their landlords in the amounts of $7,500, $8,800, $6,925 and $10,000. However, Jones changed the routing and bank account numbers from the landlords’ accounts to four unauthorized accounts in Georgia: an account in the name of Jones’s business, Beauty Concepts by Alihea, LLC (Beauty Concepts); Jones’s personal account; and the accounts of persons identified in the charging document as “Friend A” and “Friend B” – all without knowledge or permission from DHCD. After these transfers went through, Friend A and Friend B each paid Jones a $2,000 kickback.
Earlier, in 2021, Jones also fraudulently obtained a $187,000 PPP loan from a Massachusetts lender, which the SBA later forgave. Jones spent most of the money on personal expenses, including clothing and restaurants.
Under the PPP, authorized lenders issued SBA-guaranteed loans to small businesses during the COVID pandemic to help keep workers employed. If a business spent the money on payroll and other permissible business expenses, the SBA forgave the loan.
Jones submitted a PPP loan application to a Massachusetts lender falsely stating that Beauty Concepts had 17 employees and an average monthly payroll expense of $74,800. In fact, Beauty Concepts did not employ anyone. Unaware that Jones’s information was false, the SBA agreed to guarantee a $187,000 loan to Beauty Concepts. The lender transmitted the loan proceeds to the Beauty Concepts account in Georgia. Jones later applied to have her loan forgiven. Again, she included false employee count and payroll information. Unaware that Jones’s representations were false, the SBA forgave the loan principal and accrued interest.
In total, Jones caused a loss of $222,074, with $33,225 payable to the DHCD and $188,849 payable to the SBA.
United States Attorney Leah B. Foley; Massachusetts Inspector General Jeffrey S. Shapiro; and Ketty Larco-Ward, Inspector in Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s Boston Division made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorney Christine Wichers of the Public Corruption Unit prosecuted the case.