New Jersey Woman Sentenced to Prison for COVID-19 Bank Fraud and Money Laundering Scheme

CHARLESTON, West Virginia, Jan. 20 -- The office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia posted the following news release:

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New Jersey Woman Sentenced to Prison for COVID-19 Bank Fraud and Money Laundering Scheme

Kisha Sutton, 45, of Jersey City, New Jersey, was sentenced on January 15, 2026, to two years in prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $184,014.04 in restitution for aiding and abetting bank fraud and aiding and abetting money laundering.

After a two-day trial, a federal jury found Sutton guilty of both counts on July 15, 2025. Evidence at trial proved that Sutton and co-defendant Shamiese Wright aided and abetted one another to obtain a fraudulent $15,625 Paycheck Protection Plan (PPP) loan on behalf of Wright, guaranteed by the Small Business Administration (SBA) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act). Sutton received $3,000 in fraudulent PPP loan proceeds from Wright as part of their scheme.

On April 19, 2021, Sutton submitted the PPP loan application on Wright's behalf, listing Wright as a self-employed individual who received $75,000 in gross income in 2020. The application was filed with an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Form 1040, Schedule C Profit or Loss from Business, reflecting that Wright had earned $75,000 in 2020. Evidence at trial showed that Wright was not self-employed, had never earned $75,000 in any year, had received unemployment benefits in 2020, and that the IRS Form 1040 submitted with Wright's application was fraudulent and created solely to obtain the PPP loan.

A PPP lender in Florida approved Wright's loan application, and $15,625 in fraudulent loan proceeds were electronically deposited in Wright's personal bank account in Charleston on or about May 7, 2021. Wright transferred the $3,000 to Sutton from the fraudulent PPP loan proceeds using a digital wallet application between May 7 and May 21, 2021. Wright staggered her payments to Sutton and provided misleading transfer descriptions for them to conceal and disguise the nature and the source of the money.

The CARES Act made forgivable PPP loans available to qualifying sole proprietors, independent contractors and self-employed individuals adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, to replace their normal income and for certain other eligible expenses. Applicants were required to certify that they were in operation on February 15, 2020, and provide documentation showing their prior gross income from either 2019 or 2020.

Sutton and Wright and are among several individuals indicted by a federal grand jury on charges alleging Sutton led a conspiracy to obtain fraudulent PPP loans totaling $140,625. Wright, 32, of Charleston, and three other defendants pleaded guilty in the case and were ordered to pay a total of $65,611.73 in restitution.

United States Attorney Moore Capito made the announcement and commended the investigative work of the the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the West Virginia State Police - Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI), and the West Virginia State Auditor's Office (WVSAO) Public Integrity and Fraud Unit (PIFU).

United States District Judge Irene C. Berger imposed the sentence. Assistant United States Attorneys Jonathan T. Storage and Jennifer D. Gordon and former Assistant United States Attorney Holly Wilson prosecuted the case.

Individuals with information about allegations of fraud involving COVID-19 are encouraged to report it by calling the Department of Justice's National Center for Disaster Fraud Hotline at 866-720-5721, or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at: https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.

A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney's Office (https://www.justice.gov/usao/wvs) for the Southern District of West Virginia. Related court documents and information can be found on PACER (https://pacer.login.uscourts.gov/csologin/login.jsf?pscCourtId=WVSDC&appurl=https://ecf.wvsd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/showpage.pl?16) by searching for Case No. 2:24-cr-192.

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Original text here: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdwv/pr/new-jersey-woman-sentenced-prison-covid-19-bank-fraud-and-money-laundering-scheme