Charlotte man going to prison for stealing $200K in COVID relief money
A 31-year-old Charlotte man this week was sentenced to five years in prison for using stolen identities across multiple states to take $219,000 from COVID-19 taxpayer relief programs, prosecutors said.
Keon Taylor was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Charlotte Thursday. He previously pleaded guilty in July 2021 to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, court records.
The records don’t reveal how Taylor got the victims’ names, social security numbers, birth dates and addresses but prosecutors said there were at least 35 victims.
After the sentencing, Tommy Coke, inspector in charge of the Atlanta Division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service said in a news release, Taylor “took advantage of the American people whose lives have been disrupted by the pandemic to try and enrich himself through fraud.”
Taylor used the stolen information to apply for and receive about $219,000 in unemployment benefits, prosecutors said. He used identities of people in North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Ohio, Massachusetts, Nevada and Arizona, court records show.
He submitted numerous other applications for unemployment benefits and for three Small Business Administration loans. The SBA loans were for businesses hurt by the pandemic, according to court documents.
He ran his scheme from March 2020 to February 2021, when federal agents obtained a warrant to search Taylor’s apartment and found equipment used to make fake identification cards, prosecutors said.
Taylor kept making fake ID cards even after he pleaded guilty in the case, according to court records.
In a statement Thursday, U.S. Attorney Dena King said Taylor’s “crime spree” victimized people “in real need as a result of the coronavirus.”
This story was originally published March 11, 2022 at 1:21 PM.