CHESTERFIELD, Va. (WWBT) - A Chesterfield woman pled guilty on Thursday to making false claims to steal from multiple COVID-19 relief programs.
According to court documents, from about May 12, 2020, through at least March 18, 2021, Sheila C. Bynum-Coleman, 54, filed for and received at least nine COVID-19 Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans.
The total came to over $225,000 on behalf of eight different “businesses” she and her husband, Rashad H. Coleman, 48, ran.
Bynum-Coleman made numerous false certifications, including that each business had significant annual sales and revenue.
According to court records, she inflated and manufactured annual sales and revenue figures to get a higher amount of PPP funds the business could qualify.
She also faked income tax return documents to falsely support the business sales and revenue figures.
For instance, though Bynum-Coleman submitted excerpts of a 2020 income tax return as part of multiple PPP loan applications, neither her nor her husband filed any income tax returns in 2020.
Bynum-Coleman and Coleman also pled guilty to failing to file 2020 income tax returns.
Though Bynum-Coleman represented to financial institutions in PPP applications that she and her husband were operating numerous businesses in 2020, Bynum-Coleman represented to the Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) that she was unemployed from March 15, 2020, through Feb. 13, 2021, to get pandemic unemployment benefits.
Bynum-Coleman told the VEC that she didn’t...
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