Lansing Man Sentenced For COVID Relief Fraud
Shaquiel Seaton, 29 years old, of Lansing, Illinois, was sentenced by United States District Court Senior Judge James T. Moody after pleading guilty to wire fraud, announced United States Attorney Clifford D. Johnson.
Seaton was sentenced to 24 months in prison, 2 years of supervised release and was ordered to pay $210,000 in restitution to the victim of the offense, the Small Business Administration (SBA). A $6,000 forfeiture money judgment was also imposed.
According to documents in the case, between June 10 and July 17, 2020, Seaton filed 44 fraudulent applications for $10,000 grants from the SBA pursuant to the COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) Program. As a result of his fraudulent scheme, the SBA paid out $10,000 grants from 21 of those applications. The investigation revealed that Seaton typically charged a $3,000 fee to fraudulently prepare and file applications for other people. Since applications were only to be submitted by businesses, Seaton fabricated business information on the applications to include revenue, costs, type of business, and the number of employees.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division. This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Alexandra McTague.
