Another daughter of former Broward County Mayor Dale Holness has pleaded guilty to a fraud charge stemming from a COVID-19 pandemic benefits program.
But as part of her federal plea deal, Richelle Holness will be spared from another charge accusing her of stealing from her father’s county commission campaign in 2020.
Holness, 41, of Lauderhill, faces up to six months in prison at her sentencing in January after admitting in Miami federal court on Thursday that she fraudulently received about $30,000 in emergency benefits from a federally funded state unemployment program between May 2020 and August 2021, according to federal court records.
For part of that time, she was working on her father’s county commission campaign.
Holness acknowledged that she “knowingly made materially false, fictitious and fraudulent statements” when she claimed on her Pandemic Unemployment Assistance application that she “did not work or earn money during the period that she was receiving the benefits,” according to a factual statement filed with her plea agreement.