‘Trying to steal every last cent’: Final defendant convicted in $6.8M COVID-19 fraud scheme

The final defendant of a six-defendant fraud scheme was convicted late last week of submitting fraudulent applications that sought more than $6.8 million in COVID-19 benefits.

Jahri Asad Cunningham, 48, of Houston, Texas, is the brother of the “mastermind” behind the scheme, Paradise Williams, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the two worked “hand-in-glove” defrauding several relief programs. Cunningham personally received $344,240 in benefits intended for people struggling to keep possession of their homes during the pandemic.

The whole group collected more than $3.3 million during the scheme. U.S. District Judge John H. Chun ordered Cunningham remanded into custody after the guilty verdict was returned and scheduled Cunningham’s sentencing for Nov. 2.

COVID fraud scheme began with fake companies before shifting to fake landlords

Cunningham initially tried to defraud the Small Business Administration (SBA) of more than $515,000 by creating fake companies in a bid to obtain funds through SBA’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) Program, according to records filed in the case and evidence presented in the four-day jury trial.

The SBA identified the applications as fraudulent and did not pay any money in response to the fake applications.

Cunningham and his sister then moved on to another program, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program, administered by King County.

In 2021 and 2022, both defendants posed as landlords seeking rental assistance in an effort to prevent the supposed eviction of tenants who supposedly couldn’t pay their rent during the pandemic. The DOJ noted that the tenants didn’t even exist.

Cunningham didn’t own or represent building owners, though he submitted eight applications with various names posing as a landlord. At the trial, prosecutors played out how Cunningham and his sister defrauded the program and narrated their activities in real-time via text messages.

“They created fake tenants, they created fake documents, they created fake eviction notices for their fake tenants,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Lauren Watts Staniar told the jury in closing argument. “And every dollar that went to a fraudster was a dollar that could not go to a family in need.”

Fraud scheme continued even after the county recovered its funds

Once King County identified the fraud and took back $100,000 it had paid out to Cunningham, he continued to try to get the county to return the money by providing other fake documents.

“Jahri Cunningham was trying to steal every last cent of the [rental assistance] program,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Cindy Chang said in closing statements.

After Cunningham realized he was being investigated by law enforcement, he urged his sister to buy a new phone and get a new telephone number to hide text messages that revealed their scheme at trial.

Cunningham was ultimately convicted of three counts of wire fraud, one for submitting fake SBA EIDL applications, and two for submitting applications to the emergency rental assistance program. Cunningham was also convicted of money laundering in connection with the tens of thousands of dollars in kickbacks that he paid to his sister for her role in the scheme.

In March 2024, Williams was sentenced to five years in prison. Wire fraud and money laundering are punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

The DOJ noted that Cunningham was convicted in the Western District of Washington and sentenced to 75 months in prison for conspiracy to distribute controlled substances in 2016.

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