BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — A Denham Springs woman pled guilty to a COVID-19 relief fund scheme.
According to U.S. Attorney Ronald Gathe, 40-year-old Myaika Gross pleaded guilty “to wire fraud in connection with her defrauding of the COVID-19 relief programs.” Gross was a former United States Postal Service employee.
As part of her guilty plea, Gross admitted to applying for pandemic unemployment benefits in five states between May 2020 and June 2021. Those states were California, Kansas, Indiana, Colorado and Louisiana.
Gross claimed to work in each state and was laid off due to the pandemic. She applied for and received a Paycheck Protecting Program (PPP) loan using false information and defrauded the United States government for a total of $65,928 in pandemic funds.
Gross was indicted by a federal grand jury in July 2024. Federal court documents show Gross must forfeit all property that was gained from the proceeds. If the property is unable to be forfeited, Gross must forfeit any personal property of equal value.