Date: Feb. 28, 2025
Contact: [email protected]
ATLANTA — Jerry Baptiste, the last of 20 defendants charged in a wide-ranging criminal scheme to steal Paycheck Protection Program funds during the COVID-19 pandemic, has been sentenced for his role in the scheme.
“This defendant and his co-conspirators used an unprecedented global crisis to defraud the government and the American people,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Richard S. Moultrie Jr. “Today’s tough, but fair, sentence sends the message that stealing from the government does not pay.”
“The sentencings of the 20 defendants serves as a reminder to those who committed PPP fraud that investigations into their criminal acts have not ended,” said Special Agent in Charge Demetrius Hardeman, IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), Atlanta Field Office. “IRS-CI special agents will continue their diligent search for those who defrauded the American people during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
“This sentencing wraps up an exhaustive investigation into a fraud scheme that stole emergency funds from businesses and individuals that desperately needed them during the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Paul Brown, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta. “The FBI will make every effort to ensure federal funds are used as intended and punish anyone who would steal from our government.”
According to Acting U.S. Attorney Moultrie, the third superseding indictment, and other information presented in court: from April 2020 through May 2020, Jerry Baptiste conspired with Darrell Thomas, Denesseria Slaton, Amanda Christian, Charles Petty, Bern Benoit, and others to submit a fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) loan application for Transportation Management Services Inc. (“Transportation Management”), a company that Benoit purported to own. The PPP loan application for Transportation Management falsely represented that it maintained 66 employees and an average monthly payroll of $332,167, and that it would use the PPP funds for payroll, lease payments or mortgage interest, and utilities.
To support its payroll figures, Transportation Management submitted with its PPP loan application false IRS Form 941s, which are the Employer’s Quarterly Federal Tax Return, for each quarter of 2019. Transportation Management also included with its PPP loan application a fraudulent bank statement. Through the Transportation Management PPP loan application, Baptiste and his co-conspirators fraudulently obtained $830,417. Baptiste also participated in preparing other fraudulent PPP loans.
Jerry Baptiste of Miami, Florida was sentenced by U.S. District Judge J. P. Boulee to six and a half years in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of$830,417. On Oct. 29, 2024, Baptiste pleaded guilty to money laundering pursuant to a negotiated plea agreement.
All the defendants in Baptiste’s case have now been convicted and sentenced, with punishments ranging from probation to 15 years’ imprisonment:
- Darrell Thomas. On June 16, 2021, Thomas pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud and money laundering. On May 9, 2022, Thomas was sentenced to 180 months’ imprisonment followed by five years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $13,206,752.10 in restitution.
- Andre Lee Gaines. On June 17, 2021, Gaines pleaded guilty to the charge of making a false statement. On Oct. 5, 2021, Gaines was sentenced to five years’ probation and ordered to pay $806,710 in restitution.
- Kahlil Gibran Green. On Sept. 1, 2020, Green pleaded guilty to the charge of conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud. On Jan. 14, 2021, Green was sentenced to 41 months’ imprisonment followed by five years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $830,000 in restitution.
- Bern Benoit. On March 11, 2021, Benoit pleaded guilty to the charge of conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud. On Sept. 8, 2021, Benoit was sentenced to 27 months’ imprisonment followed by five years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $1,105,217 in restitution.
- Carla Jackson. On Feb. 15, 2024, Jackson was found guilty of money laundering by jury verdict. On May 16, 2024, Jackson was sentenced to 36 months’ imprisonment followed by two years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $335,238.22 in restitution.
- Ricky Dixon. On Aug. 1, 2022, Dixon pleaded guilty to the charges of aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to commit money laundering. On Jan. 25, 2023, Dixon was sentenced to 100 months’ imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $4,320,928.31 in restitution.
- Meghan Thomas. On July 27, 2022, Thomas pleaded guilty to the charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. On May 23, 2023, Thomas was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $2,381,760.35 in restitution.
- Jesika Blakely. On March 15, 2022, Blakely pleaded guilty to the charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering. On Feb. 8, 2023, Blakely was sentenced to 36 months’ imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $5,348,498.89 in restitution.
- Amanda Christian. On March 5, 2022, Christian pleaded guilty to the charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. On Sept. 13, 2022, Christian was sentenced to 41 months’ imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $835,542 in restitution.
- Dwan Ashong. On June 29, 2022, Ashong pleaded guilty to the charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering. On Oct. 31, 2022, Ashong was sentenced to 51 months’ imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $3,604,807 in restitution.
- John Gaines. On Jan. 31, 2024, Gaines pleaded guilty to the charge of money laundering. On June 26, 2024, Gaines was sentenced to 63 months’ imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $806,710 in restitution.
- Charles Petty. On Nov. 2, 2021, Petty pleaded guilty to the charge of conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud. On Feb. 25, 2022, Petty was sentenced to 46 months’ imprisonment followed by five years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $830,417 in restitution.
- Derek Parker. On April 14, 2022, Parker pleaded guilty to the charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. On Aug. 31, 2022, Parker was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $163,620.40 in restitution.
- David Belgrave II. On May 25, 2022, Belgrave pleaded guilty to the charge of conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud. On Aug. 25, 2022, Belgrave was sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release, with 18 months on home detention, and ordered to pay $877,000 in restitution.
- Charles Hill IV. On Sept. 29, 2021, Hill pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. On Jan. 12, 2022, Hill was sentenced to five years’ probation, with 27 months on home detention, and ordered to pay $1,004,805 in restitution.
- Ryan Whittley. On May 25, 2022, Whittley pleaded guilty to the charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. On Aug. 29, 2022, Whittley was sentenced to 21 months’ imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $797,275 in restitution.
- El Hadj Sall. On Aug. 24, 2022, Sall pleaded guilty to the charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. On Nov. 29, 2022, Sall was sentenced to 27 months’ imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $973,585 in restitution.
- Rick McDuffie. On April 27, 2022, McDuffie pleaded guilty to the charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. On Aug. 23, 2022, McDuffie was sentenced to 24 months’ imprisonment followed by one year of supervised release, and ordered to pay $5,125 in restitution.
- Teldrin Foster. On Feb. 15, 2024, Foster was found guilty of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, making a false statement to a federally insured bank, and money laundering by jury verdict. On June 25, 2024, Foster was sentenced to 121 months’ imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $9,606,627.35 in restitution.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Samir Kaushal and Nathan Kitchens, and former Assistant U.S. Attorneys Tal Chaiken and Norman Barnett, of the Northern District of Georgia, and Trial Attorney Siji Moore of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, prosecuted the case.
IRS-CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a 90% federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 14 attaché posts abroad.