On November 8, 2024, Triveria Lasha Populus pleaded guilty to COVID-19 Paycheck Protection Program loan fraud using personal identifying information of hundreds of people. Some could argue that Populus became a fraudster due to the people she hung with. In criminology, differential association is the theory that through interaction with others, individuals learn the values, attitudes, techniques, and motives for criminal behavior. Populus’s friends were criminals.
It all started, in March of 2024, when federal law enforcement investigators conducted a drug investigation on husband and wife, Glennie Antonion McGee and Echandza Dianca Maxie, who were accused of running a drug ring in a case that became public after Mobile County sheriff’s deputies said they found two kilograms of cocaine in a three year old child’s backpack. Further investigations found that Maxie didn’t just limit herself to illegal drug distribution. She ran a tax preparation service that fraudulently claimed hundreds of thousands in fraudulent COVID-19 claims.
Tell me who you’re with, and I’ll tell you who you are. Maxie and Populus recruited people to mine prospective taxpayers whose information could be used to file false returns claiming a little-known sick leave and family leave credit created by Congress for people who contracted COVID-19. Although they apparently kept many of those taxpayers in the dark on their eligibility and pocketed the clients’ tax refunds into their own personal bank accounts.
Populus was the first of five people in this indictment to admit guilt. Her sentencing is scheduled for April of 2025.
Excellent job by the Drug Enforcement Administration in this case.
Today’s Fraud of The Day is based on article “Mobile woman pleads guilty to participating in $400,000 COVID fraud scheme” published By Fox 10 News on November 8, 2024.
A woman pleaded guilty Friday to participating in an elaborate scheme to defraud the federal government of hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of COVID-19 funds, using personal identifying information of hundreds of people. Tiveria Lasha Populus, 45, of Mobile, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to wire fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud. She is the first of five people named in the indictment to admit guilt.
Populus admitted that her conduct resulted in an intended loss to taxpayers of $40,000 to $95,000. A judge scheduled her sentencing for April. Prosecutors agreed to recommend lenience as part of the plea bargain. Defense attorney Tom Walsh said he will seek probation.
