An Oakland woman has been sentenced to three years in prison in a million dollar pandemic relief fraud case, U.S. Attorney Stephanie Hinds announced Thursday.
Christina Burden, 32, had pleaded guilty to two counts of bank fraud and two counts of money laundering.
In her plea agreement, Burden admitted to registering multiple fictitious businesses with the California Secretary of State, and she then modified documents by inserting incorrect dates and purported business operations in order to qualify the fictitious entities for loans from the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program, prosecutors said.
She also submitted fake IRS tax documents that contained false statements about the number of employees, payroll costs and wages paid related to the fictitious businesses.
Prosecutors said she falsely claimed she had 89 employees and a monthly payroll of more than $700,000 in the fictitious businesses.
In total, she tried to obtain more than $4.5 million in pandemic relief loans. She received $992,291 in fraudulently obtained PPP loans and another $150,900 in fraudulently obtained EIDL loans and advances, prosecutors said.
She spent the money on high-end luxury items and services including private jet travel, other airfare, hotel expenses, purchases from Louis Vuitton, Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom, boat and car rentals, restaurants, entertainment, and automobiles.
In addition to her prison sentence, Burden was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $1,143,191.
One down, infinity to go …
Agree and I hope all the money is recover.
All the talent she had to do this could have gone to legal means.
Government at work, you think they would a least check tax ID’s and if these companies have ever filed taxes before sending a check. If not check them out first.
She had to work 10X as hard to achieve an outcome.
Why only $1100 in restitution? Why won’t her paychecks in the future be attached? Is she banned from California welfare!
WTH?
@ Patty
Move the decimal point three to the left. It’s over 1 million.
At least it went to economic stimulus.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes! 😂
One has to wonder how much federal borrowing was squandered on waste. There is this type of outright fraud plus the employers who had people working from home without issue, but still managed to nab federal “assistance”. What a waste that our grandchildren will be paying for.
So you can steal 1.1 million and your penalty is 3 years in prison and $1, 100 restoration.
Does she get to keep some of those luxury items?
Possibly she could become Democrat politician in the future.
What happened to “pled”? Is pled not the past tense of plead?…….Every time I see something like “They pleaded guilty” it sounds like “I was hungry so I eated a sandwich”……”My cat was meowing at me so I feeded him”……”I was bored so I readed a book”
I’m concerned that a few of you can’t read numbers.
That’s $1,143,191. Did you think that was $1100.00?
(hint, that’s one million one hundred forty three thousand one hundred and ninety one dollars)
Comments keep mentioning only $1,100 in restitution. This is from the article: In addition to her prison sentence, Burden was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $1,143,191.
Was the article wrong and then corrected?
She’ll be out in 18 months and won’t pay back a cent.
“Paper Looting” during the Covid Emergency should carry a much stronger sentence. Further they should attach her social security to assist in repaying her debt.
.. 3 yes isn’t enough – but she’ll be out in 6 months
With a name like that, she oughtta go into politics. She already has experience ripping off the taxpayers.
At least somebody got convicted of something somewhere.
Anyone hear anything from our MIA DA?