⚖️ 11 Indicted in Florida: The Family That Defrauds Together Does Federal Time Together
December 2025 brought another round of indictments, and this one's a doozy. Eleven individuals in Florida got hit with federal charges for stealing over $2 million in COVID relief funds through a coordinated fraud scheme that ran from April 2020 to June 2021.
The playbook was simple: submit multiple false PPP and EIDL applications stuffed with fraudulent documentation - fake IRS tax forms, fabricated business records, imaginary employees. Once the money landed, they played hot potato, transferring funds between co-conspirators' accounts to make it harder to trace.
Congress extended the statute of limitations specifically for PPP/EIDL fraud. If you filed a false forgiveness application in 2021, that clock runs until 2031. Sleep tight.
This Isn't Slowing Down
Same month in Brooklyn: six family members got indicted on 23 counts - conspiracy, grand larceny, falsifying business records. Karima Branche, Faye Wilkie-Fields, Wilworth Branche, Carol Horton, Monique Horton, and Paul Neufville. They're due back in court January 28, 2026.
In Kansas City, Renetta Golden-Larimore got 51 months in federal prison for preparing 43 false PPP applications. Twenty-one other people have been charged in connection with her scheme alone. One person. Forty-three fake applications. Twenty-one co-defendants.
Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco has made it clear: the DOJ needs "what it needs to finish the job." They're requesting continued funding, asking for statute of limitations extensions on other pandemic programs, and treating this as a multi-year enforcement priority.
The Fintech Problem
Here's an uncomfortable stat: 75% of alleged PPP fraud came through fintech lenders - even though fintechs only processed about 15% of total applications. Easy online applications, minimal documentation, fast approvals. Great for fraudsters in 2020. Great for prosecutors now.
Sources: SBA.gov, Brooklyn DA, DOJ