Tanisha Wooding, a 46-year-old resident of Huntington, West Virginia, has been sentenced to 10 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for theft of government money related to COVID-19 relief fraud. She was also ordered to pay $101,204.31 in restitution.
According to court records, between July 2020 and June 2021, Wooding fraudulently obtained $91,664 through loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration (SBA) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. She applied for and received four Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans totaling $81,664 by falsely stating that the funds were needed for payroll and other business expenses for several businesses she claimed to own. These included two insurance agencies, a carpet cleaning business, and a tax service. Additionally, she secured a $10,000 Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) by claiming she operated an insurance business with ten employees.
Wooding admitted as part of her guilty plea that she did not own or operate any businesses nor had any eligible business expenses during this period. The funds from these loans were deposited into her personal bank account in West Virginia and used for personal expenditures via cash withdrawals and digital payments.
The CARES Act was enacted to provide financial support to businesses affected by the pandemic through forgivable PPP loans and EIDL program loans managed by the SBA.
United States Attorney Moore Capito acknowledged the efforts of multiple agencies involved in investigating this case: “I commend the investigative work of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Office of Inspector General (NASA OIG), the U.S. Department of Homeland Security-Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Litigation Financial Analyst with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and the West Virginia State Police – Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI).”
NASA OIG is part of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC) Fraud Task Force which coordinates oversight across federal programs to detect misuse in pandemic relief spending. The PRAC’s Pandemic Analytics Center of Excellence supported this investigation with data-driven forensic analysis.
United States District Judge Robert C. Chambers delivered the sentence. The prosecution was led by Assistant United States Attorney Jennifer D. Gordon and former Assistant United States Attorney Andrew J. Tessman.
The Department of Justice encourages individuals with information about COVID-19 fraud to report it through their National Center for Disaster Fraud Hotline at 866-720-5721 or online at https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.
Additional details about this case can be found on PACER by searching Case No. 3:25-cr-122.
