A Mississippi man is going down for his role in a massive Paycheck Protection Program fraud scheme.
Olive Branch resident Montreal Hudson, age not provided, was sentenced to 70 months in prison, followed by five years of supervised release, for his conviction in a January trial for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
The scheme, which was uncovered during a civil investigation, involved Hudson and his co-conspirators using a tax preparation business in Charleston, MS, to create and file hundreds of PPP loan applications on behalf of borrowers who were not eligible for the loans.
The defendants, including Hudson and his mother, Zipora Hudson, created fraudulent Schedule C tax documents to claim gross income amounts that far exceeded the real income for a particular business or claimed gross income amounts for businesses that never existed.
The scheme resulted in the defendants receiving PPP loans in amounts ranging from $19,000 to $20,833 per loan, for which they required the borrowers to pay a kickback out of the proceeds of each loan.
The illegally obtained money was used to purchase luxury vehicles and real estate, among other things, and Hudson was ordered to pay $3,526,517 in restitution as part of his sentence.
Hudson was convicted alongside his mother, Zipora Hudson, who was sentenced to 5 years in prison followed by 5 years of supervised release in April of this year.
Deandre Jones, also of Olive Branch, MS, previously pled guilty in the case.
The case was investigated by the IRS Criminal Investigation Division, along with investigators from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Leary and Assistant U.S. Attorney Sam Wright on behalf of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Mississippi.
The COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force, established by the Attorney General in May 2021, played a key role in uncovering the scheme and bringing the perpetrators to justice.
Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline via the NCDF Web Complaint Form.
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Key Facts
- State: Mississippi
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: White Collar Crime|Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: Official Source ↗
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