Source: Office of United States Attorneys
NEW ORLEANS – Acting U.S. Attorney Michael M. Simpson announced that TRACIE L. MIXON (“MIXON”), age 43, of Hammond, LA, was sentenced on May 27, 2025 to two (2) years in prison by U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan, after previously pleading guilty to making false statements related to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act).
On March 27, 2020, The CARES Act established several new temporary programs and provided for the expansion of others to address the COVID-19 pandemic. Among these programs, the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) authorized forgivable loans backed by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) to small businesses to retain workers and maintain payroll, make mortgage interest payments, lease payments, and utility payments. The PPP allows the interest and principal on the PPP loan to be forgiven if the business spends the loan proceeds on these expense items within a designated period of time after receiving the proceeds and uses at least a certain percentage of the PPP loan proceeds on payroll expenses.
According to court documents, MIXON made false statements on an SBA form to an approved lender on or about February 23, 2021, to fraudulently obtain a PPP loan. MIXON affirmed that she had not been previously convicted of federal program financial assistance fraud when, in truth, she pled guilty, in the Eastern District of Virginia, to conspiracy to commit federal student loan fraud and mail fraud in a scheme that involved stolen identities.
Additionally, MIXON was ordered to pay $31,000 in restitution to the lending institution and the SBA and faces three (3) years of supervised release and payment of a $100 mandatory special assessment fee.
For more information on the Department of Justice’s response to the pandemic, please visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus. Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.
Acting U.S. Attorney Simpson praised the work of the United States Secret Service in investigating this matter. Assistant U.S. Attorney Edward J. Rivera of the Financial Crimes Unit was in charge of the prosecution.