Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr., today announced the guilty plea of CHARDE BAKER, 37, in connection to four indictments charging 18 defendants with a wide range of criminal conduct, including a fraud conspiracy. BAKER pleaded guilty across two indictments to the following charges: one count each of Grand Larceny in the First Degree, Conspiracy in the Fourth Degree and Official Misconduct for operating as a ringleader to defraud the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (“PUA”) program and to one count of Attempted Burglary in the Second Degree for coordinating a residential burglary. Under the terms of her plea, she is
expected to be sentenced to 2 1/3-to-7 years in state prison on February 6, 2026.
On October 20, 2025, CLIFFIE THOMPSON, the other PUA fraud ringleader, was sentenced to 4-to-12 years in state prison after pleading guilty in relation to three of the indictments – two for operating ghost gun conspiracies, alongside two co-conspirators, and one for defrauding the PUA program alongside BAKER, among other associates…