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RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- A Raleigh pastor is facing decades behind bars after pleading guilty to receiving more than $400,000 of fraudulent government-funded COVID-19 loans. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 45-year-old Mitchell Summerfield was found guilty of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and wire fraud in connection with a scheme to fraudulently obtain COVID-19 loan funds. According to court documents, Summerfield was the pastor of the Word of God Fellowship Church in Raleigh and owned various other businesses, including Winning Ways, KHS Investments, and Vision and Destiny. In 2018, Summerfield stepped into the role of lead pastor at...

In this video, we discuss Tiawana Brown, a Charlotte City Council member representing District 3. Elected in 2023, she made history as the first formerly incarcerated individual to serve on the council. Recently, however, she has been federally indicted again—this time on PPP fraud charges

A USAID employee has been charged with fraudulently creating a fake company to secure COVID-19 benefits for himself, federal prosecutors said Friday. Yusuf Akoll, who was in charge of managing contracts for the agency, made false statements to obtain Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans. “Yusuf Akoll worked as a Senior Procurement Contract Specialist at the U.S. Agency for International Development,” according to a previously unreported court document. “From at least in or around March 2021, and continuing through at least in or around August 2021, Akoll [made] materially false, fictitious, and fraudulent statements…that resulted in Akoll receiving two [Paycheck Protection...

A USAID employee in charge of managing contracts for the agency created a fake company to fraudulently secure coronavirus benefits for himself, federal prosecutors said Friday. “Yusuf Akoll worked as a Senior Procurement Contract Specialist at the U.S. Agency for International Development,” according to a previously unreported court document. “From at least in or around March 2021, and continuing through at least in or around August 2021, Akoll [made] materially false, fictitious, and fraudulent statements…that resulted in Akoll receiving two [Paycheck Protection Program] loans totaling approximately $16,666 that he was not entitled to receive.” Prosecutors said that in November 2020,...

he Department of Labor just revealed some SHOCKING numbers on fraud at the agency: -25,000 people who are over 115 years old and have been collecting $59 million in payments. -28,000 people between one and five years old have collected fraudulent payments in the amount of $254 million. -10,000 people who have not been born yet, 15 years into the future, $69 million in payments. -In one case, they will be born 129 years from now. The United States government sent them $41,000. Eradicating fraud is a concept EVERYONE should be able to get behind.

Department of Government Efficiency@DOGE·3hAn initial survey of Unemployment Insurance claims since 2020 revealed the following:- 24.5k people over 115 years old claimed $59M in benefits- 28k people between 1 and 5 years old claimed $254M in benefits- 9.7k people with birth dates over 15 years in the future claimed $69M in benefitsIn one case, someone with a birthday in 2154 claimed $41k.

Zeynep Tufekci and Jeremy Howard played a decisive role in shifting CDC guidance and ushering in mask mandates across America. Zeynep’s role in the COVID story goes far deeper than most realize. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeynep_Tufekci But alas, the pro-mask establishment responded with a trump card of their own: a New York Times op-ed by sociologist Zeynep Tufekci, Here’s Why the Science Is Clear That Masks Work, highlighting a statement of clarification from Cochrane’s editor-in-chief, Karla Soares-Weiser, that the review’s conclusion had been “open to misinterpretation, for which we apologize.” This new trump card was a disaster for mask opponents—the proverbial queen of...

Despite federal law expressly prohibiting it, national abortion chain Planned Parenthood appears to have pocketed millions of dollars in “Paycheck Protection Program” COVID relief funds, and now Congress wants answers. U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship Chair Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chair Rand Paul (R-Ky) report they have “asked the Small Business Administration (SBA) to share how the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) unlawfully received millions of dollars in funding from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and had 34 loans forgiven by the Biden administration.” “Ernst and Paul...

The husband of former Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) allegedly bilked taxpayers out of more than $20,000 in a COVID loan scheme and used the money for his “personal benefit and enjoyment,” according to the DC US Attorney’s Office. Cortney Merritts, 46, was charged in a federal indictment Thursday with two counts of wire fraud related to allegedly fraudulent applications he filed with the Small Business Administration in 2020 and 2021 that allowed him to collect – and never repay – government funds from the pandemic-era Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program (EIDL) and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Merritts received an $8,500...

Former left-wing congresswoman Cori Bush’s husband was charged on Thursday with defrauding the federal government to illegally collect tens of thousands of dollars in loans under COVID-era small business relief programs. Cortney Merritts, who secretly married Bush in 2023, falsified details about his purported businesses in order to obtain more than $20,000 in loans from the Small Business Administration in 2020 and 2021 under the Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program, the Department of Justice said in a statement. Bush represented St. Louis before suffering a primary loss last year that she blamed on the Jews. She...

A pair of Republican senators are asking the Trump administration to investigate Planned Parenthood for potential financial fraud stemming from the COVID era, as Congress moves to allow continued prosecutions for COVID-related fraud. Senators Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) recently sent a letter to Kelly Loeffler, head of the Small Business Administration (SBA), asking her to look into Planned Parenthood’s “unlawful” collection of over $100 million in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds and to provide Congress with related documents which the Biden administration previously withheld. According to the senators, Planned Parenthood affiliates were alerted in the first half...

A Long Island tax preparer allegedly bilked the IRS out of $12 million in a COVID scheme she used to buy jewelry, a Honda — and a house in the Dominican Republic. Damaris Beltre, 57, filed false tax returns for her clients between 2021 and 2024, and launched a scheme to illegally obtain Payroll Protection Program loans during the pandemic, federal prosecutors said. “The defendant’s fraudulent work as a tax preparer and in furtherance of a COVID-19 loan scheme, cost the government millions of dollars,” John Durham, US attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement...

Remember when Democrats insisted that they needed unlimited COVID relief funds to help “struggling Americans?” Well, guess what — millions of those dollars went to elementary school “business owners” and people who would've been alive during the Civil War. You can't make this stuff up. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) just dropped a bombshell that exposes the mind-boggling incompetence of Biden's administration. It has uncovered nearly $2 billion in "misplaced" funds at HUD, but that's just the appetizer in this feast of government waste. Here's the shocking truth: During 2020-2021, the Small Business Administration handed out 5,593 loans totaling...

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) announced has the agency has identified more than $300 million in COVID-era loans were granted to children. According to DOGE, they have identified that the Small Business Administration (SBA) granted almost 5,600 loans between 2020 and 2021 for $312 million to borrowers where, at the time of the loan, the listed owner was 11 years old or younger. DOGE shared on X, “In 2020-2021, SBA granted 5,593 loans for $312M to borrowers whose only listed owner was 11 years old or younger at the time of the loan.” “While it is possible to have...

Two Republican senators are demanding information from the Small Business Administration (SBA) about how much COVID-19 aid Planned Parenthood chapters received. Sens. Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Rand Paul (R-KY) sent a letter on Friday to SBA administrator Kelly Loeffler about the abortion giant receiving funds from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which was created during the pandemic to assist businesses suffering under government-imposed lockdowns, the Daily Signal first reported. “Not a single tax dollar should fund abortions,” Ernst told the outlet. “The Paycheck Protection Program was designed to help Americans struggling during the pandemic, not to go to ineligible recipients...

In one case, a 157 years old individual received $36k in loans.

They’re catching up to the people that abused the PPP loans in 2020 https://x.com/i/status/1891225784515215843

The Auberge du Soleil, a five-star hillside hotel and spa with a panoramic view overlooking the vineyards of Napa Valley, appears to be first-rate in all ways but one. While the glamorous resort, an hour’s drive from San Francisco, fills rooms that routinely go for $2,000 a night with A-list celebrities and tech titans, financial records suggest it did not provide much of a return to at least two of its investors – Rep. Nancy Pelosi and her husband, Paul. That changed when it received millions in congressionally authorized COVID-19 relief in 2020 and 2021. he Auberge du Soleil investment,...

Media Matters known for organizing pressure campaigns against conservative voices it opposes.. Ben Shapiro accused The New York Times of working with far-left advocacy group Media Matters for America in order to get anyone who opposed Kamala Harris silenced on YouTube, supplying screenshots of a reporter who noted he was working with the progressive organization. Media Matters, founded in 2004 by longtime Clinton ally David Brock, is often cited by legacy news organizations as a media watchdog. It has built a reputation for organizing pressure campaigns against conservative voices it opposes, including boycott movements. Shapiro took to social media to...

Cambridge suspect faces federal charges An alleged meth and fentanyl kingpin of a “sprawling” Greater Boston empire was arrested and charged following an investigation which indicated he could have produced millions of counterfeit pills — partially funded through Paycheck Protection Program loan fraud. Schuyler Oppenheimer, 33, of Cambridge, who allegedly conducted illicit trade with Chinese suppliers under the name “Michael Sylvain,” was arrested last week and charged in federal court in Boston with possession of 500 grams and more of a mixture and substance containing a detectable amount of methamphetamine and two counts of wire fraud. The drug charge carries...