Chanette Lewis, COVID-19 Fraud Scheme & NYCHA Scam, New York 2022

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK – Chanette Lewis, a Brooklyn woman, was sentenced to three years in prison for her role in two fraud schemes.

According to the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, Lewis participated in a scheme to commit COVID-19 pandemic fraud by defrauding New York City’s COVID-19 Hotel Room Isolation Program and committing unemployment benefits fraud. Lewis also committed a fraud in which she submitted fabricated documents to the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) to secure public housing benefits for her customers.

Williams stated, ‘Chanette Lewis exploited multiple lifelines offered to New York City residents in need during the COVID-19 pandemic. Each of her schemes misappropriated identifying information of hardworking individuals, including medical professionals whose services were vital during the pandemic. For her brazen crimes, Lewis has now been sentenced to prison.’

The COVID-19 Pandemic Fraud Scheme, which occurred during 2020 and 2021, involved Lewis defrauding the COVID-19 Hotel Room Isolation Program. According to the allegations, Lewis secured free hotel rooms for herself by falsely claiming to be a healthcare worker and sold at least approximately 1,936 nights’ worth of fraudulently obtained hotel rooms to customers who were ineligible for the Program.

Lewis also committed unemployment benefits fraud in New York State by fraudulently obtaining such benefits for herself and stealing t

In addition, Lewis abused her position at a call center that handled phone calls and certain reservations for the Program, misappropriating healthcare workers’ identifying information, revealing the Program’s inner workings to co-conspirators, and making unauthorized sales of Program hotel rooms to ineligible individuals.

On [current date], Chanette Lewis was sentenced to three years in prison for her role in the COVID-19 pandemic fraud and NYCHA scam. The sentence was imposed by U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan.

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