Mother, Daughter Partners In Crime Get Prison In $1.7M COVID Scheme

MOUNT VERNON, NY — Justice has finally been served in a pandemic-era fraud that cost taxpayers well over a million dollars.

Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced on Friday that Alicia Ayers and Andrea Ayers were sentenced to two years in prison followed by six months of home confinement and 42 months in prison, respectively, for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and making false statements in connection with a scheme to defraud the U.S. Small Business Administration out of approximately $1.7 million.

They both previously pled guilty.

SEE ALSO: Mount Vernon Mother & Daughter Face Federal Charges In Covid Scam

"These defendants stole from a taxpayer-funded program intended to help small businesses that were in desperate need of assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic," Williams said. "As their convictions and sentences reflect, my Office is determined to continue to work to bring to justice those who exploit and defraud government programs during a national emergency. I thank the FBI and the career prosecutors of this Office for their outstanding work investigating and prosecuting this scheme."

According to court documents, the SBA administers assistance to U.S. small businesses, including direct loans to applicants through the Economic Injury Disaster Loan ("EIDL") program. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress expanded the program to provide small businesses with low-interest loans of up to $2 million prior to May 2020 and up to $150,000 beginning in May 2020 to help overcome the loss of revenue small businesses were experiencing due to COVID-19. Applicants seeking a loan under the EIDL program were also permitted to request and receive an advance of approximately $1,000 per employee, for an amount up to $10,000, which the SBA generally provided while the loan application was pending.

In June and July 2020, Alicia Ayers and her mother, Andrea Ayers, a former code enforcement officer for the Mount Vernon Police Department, used the identities of around 300 other individuals to submit around 315 online applications to the SBA, seeking over $3 million of funds through the SBA’s EIDL program.

In connection with the EIDL applications, the pair falsely represented to the SBA that the applicants were the owners of businesses with 10 or more employees. However, the applicants did not employ the number of people reported, and the majority of the applicants did not even own businesses or have any employees. Based on the fraudulent EIDL applications, the SBA made advance payments of approximately $1,690,000 to the applicants, who then kicked back a portion of the advance payments to Alicia Ayers and Andrea Ayers.

In addition to prison terms, 37-year-old Alicia Ayers and 57-year-old Andrea Ayers, both of Mount Vernon, were each sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay forfeiture in the amount of $1,690,000 and to pay restitution to the SBA in the amount of $1,690,000.

Williams praised the investigative work of the FBI.