Linda Gurvin, Wire Fraud, Louisiana 2024

A Baton Rouge woman has been sentenced to three years in federal prison for defrauding COVID-19 pandemic relief programs.

56-year-old Linda Gurvin, a resident of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was sentenced to 36 months in federal prison following her convictions for wire fraud and unlawful monetary transactions.

According to the Department of Justice, Gurvin submitted six fraudulent applications seeking more than $1 million in federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans and Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL). The funds were designed to provide emergency financial assistance to Americans suffering from the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gurvin filed several applications in the names of businesses that she had formed prior to the pandemic but which had closed years earlier. She then filed two fraudulent applications in the names of new entities she formed after the start of the pandemic, a purported non-profit entity and an entity she called Heaven’s Paradise Church of All Nations.

Throughout the applications, Gurvin made false representations regarding the businesses and their operations, and she submitted fraudulent documents intended to bolster the applications. Based on the false representations, Gurvin attempted to obtain more than $1 million in COVID-19 relief funds and actually received more than $440,000.

As Gurvin received proceeds from the applications, she made frequent transactions to move the funds among numerous bank accounts that she controlled at the time, before spending the funds on personal expenses and purchases, such as making large down payments on a 2020 Land Rover Range Rover and a 2021 Volkswagen Atlas.

The case was investigated by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Small Business Administration – Office of Inspector General. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Alan A. Stevens and J. Brad Casey.

Gurvin was also ordered to pay $496,673.78 in restitution to the United States Small Business Administration and to forfeit an additional $447,600 in proceeds from her offenses. The Court also ordered her interest in a 2020 Range Rover forfeited, which was seized by the government as part of the investigation.

Following her release from federal prison, Gurvin will be required to serve three years supervised release.