LEXINGTON, KY (Monday, January 27, 2025) – A Lexington man, Vonnie McDaniels, 35, was sentenced on Friday, by Chief U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves, to 96 months, for wire fraud and other charges related to COVID relief programs.
Specifically, McDaniels was convicted in September 2024 of four counts of wire fraud, for fraudulently applying for three Small Business Administration (SBA) COVID-19 relief loans and for fraudulently applying to the Lexington Fayette Urban County Government’s (LFUCG) federally funded Housing Stabilization Program (HSP), a tenant rent relief program; two counts of aggravated identity theft for submitting tenant rent relief applications, pretending to be his tenants; six counts of money laundering; and two counts of committing an offense while on conditions of release.
According to the evidence at trial, McDaniels submitted a materially false application to the SBA, to obtain an Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EDIL), for one business, fraudulently obtaining a $100,000 loan. The Defendant also submitted three materially false Payment Protection Program (PPP) applications, for the same business and for another business that was no longer in operation at the time of the pandemic. Two of the three PPP applications were eventually funded, and McDaniels obtained $93,231. McDaniels also inflated numbers on his applications to increase the loan amount and uploaded fraudulent tax documents to support his numbers. In 2020, he obtained a total of $193,231 in disaster relief funds from the SBA. The theft was discovered by law enforcement when preparing for an earlier trial, in June 2021, when McDaniels was previously convicted of bank fraud and aggravated identity theft.
McDaniels used the SBA loan proceeds to pay off personal credit cards and loans, free up home equity lines of credit, purchase a new property in South Carolina, and pay his unlawfully obtained mortgage, which had been the subject of his June 2021 bank fraud trial.
In 2021, McDaniels also submitted a materially false application to LFUCG’s HSP for tenant rent relief for two properties. McDaniels uploaded fraudulent leases, vastly inflating the monthly rent amount and pretended to be his two tenants when he submitted the tenant portions of the application. McDaniels solicited personal identifying information from his tenants, told his tenants about the rent relief program, and informed his tenants that they did not qualify. Then, he fraudulently obtained $45,000 in COVID rental relief assistance, while he continued to make his tenants pay their monthly rent. He committed these offenses while subject to conditions of release, following his prior conviction.
Under federal law, McDaniels must serve 85 percent of his prison sentence. Upon his release from prison, he will be under the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office for three years. McDaniels was also ordered to pay $262,017.43 in restitution.
Carlton S. Shier, IV, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky, and Kathy Enstrom, Special Agent in Charge, Office of Inspector General, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, jointly announced the sentencing.
The investigation was conducted by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation – Office of Inspector General. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Brittany Dunn-Pirio and Andrea Mattingly Williams are representing the United States in the case.
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