4 Southern California suspects are accused of defrauding $3.5 million from a federal loan program

Four Southern California suspects have been accused of defrauding the government in a multi-million dollar scheme targeting the COVID-19 pandemic relief loan program.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Vanessa M. Williams, 35, of Corona, and Denise Mata, 34, of Moreno Valley, were arrested Thursday morning and indicted as part of a 23-count federal grand jury indictment.

Daryl D. Knighten Jr., 32, and Mikhail G. Hoalim, 33, were also charged in connection with the scheme but remain at large.

According to the indictment, from March to August 2021, the suspects submitted fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans to themselves, family members, close associates, and people they recruited. The loan program was created by Congress in 2020 to help businesses affected by the pandemic.

They reportedly promised to help their accomplices secure COVID business loans in exchange for a cut of the proceeds, court documents say.

Prosecutors said they lied to banks and the U.S. Small Business Administration on loan applications by making false statements that the applicants were self-employed and that the loan funds would be used for approved business purposes.

Each application also contained fake tax forms to trick lenders into providing money, officials said. In this way, loans were approved for over 100 accomplices, amounting to approximately $3.5 million in stolen funds.

The money was transferred to bank accounts and the co-conspirators involved paid bribes to the suspects, who spent the money on personal items, authorities said.

In March 2021, a suspect, Mata, allegedly used another person's social security number without their permission in connection with the fraud scheme.

Williams was charged with nine counts of wire fraud. Mata was charged with 10 counts of wire fraud and one additional count of aggravated identity theft.

The other two suspects, both men, remain at large as authorities continue to search for them. Knighten Jr. is charged with seven counts of wire fraud and Hoalim is charged with nine counts of wire fraud.

If convicted, each person faces up to 20 years in prison for each count of wire fraud. If convicted of aggravated identity theft, Mata would face an additional mandatory two-year sentence consecutive to any other sentence.

Anyone with information about the case or an attempted fraud related to COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice's National Center for Disaster Fraud at 866-720-5721 or using the NCDF web complaint form.

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