Woman Fraudulently Obtained Pandemic Relief Loans, IRS Tax Credits
Casie Hynes, 39, was sentenced Thursday by U.S. District Judge Hernán D. Vera, who also ordered her to pay $2,376,168 in restitution. Hynes pleaded guilty in April 2024 to one count of wire fraud and one count of false claims.
She was sentenced to 60 months in federal prison after fraudulently obtaining more than $2 million in COVID-19 relief loans and attempting to claim an additional $1.3 million in pandemic-related tax credits, the U.S. Department of Justice announced.
Between June 2020 and December 2021, Hynes submitted over 80 fraudulent applications for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans and Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL), using the names of approximately 20 companies, many of which did not exist or had no legitimate business operations.
Hynes used stolen personal information and forged signatures to submit the bogus applications, falsely claiming inflated numbers of employees, payroll expenses, and business ownership details. She also fabricated tax documents and bank statements to support her claims.
Federal agencies, including banks and the Small Business Administration (SBA), approved many of her fraudulent applications, depositing $2.25 million in relief funds into accounts controlled by Hynes, which she then used for personal expenses.
“The defendant exploited a crisis to line her own pockets, diverting vital relief funds from businesses that needed the money,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph McNally. “The sentence imposed today sends a message to others that you will be held accountable if you steal government relief funds.”
In addition to the loan fraud, Hynes attempted to secure $1.25 million in COVID-19 tax credits from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) between May 2021 and April 2022.
She submitted 12 fraudulent tax forms on behalf of Nasty Womxn Project LLC, She Suite Ventures, and Casie Hynes Consulting, falsely claiming to have paid employee wages that never existed. The IRS denied all of her fraudulent refund requests.
The IRS Criminal Investigation unit led the probe into Hynes’ fraudulent schemes, resulting in her arrest and conviction. Her sentencing is part of the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force, established by the U.S. Attorney General in May 2021, which works to investigate and prosecute domestic and international fraud linked to pandemic relief programs.
Anyone with information about COVID-19 relief fraud can report it to the National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the Justice Department’s fraud reporting website at www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud.
