Shamiese Wright, Aiding and Abetting Money Laundering, West Virginia 2025

A Charleston woman is facing prison time after pleading guilty to aiding and abetting money laundering in a COVID-19 fraud scheme.

Shamiese Wright, 32, of Charleston, West Virginia, received $15,625 in proceeds from a criminally derived Paycheck Protection Plan (PPP) loan, guaranteed by the Small Business Administration (SBA) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act).

According to court documents and statements made in court, Wright received the money after co-defendant Kisha Sutton submitted a PPP loan application on Wright's behalf, listing Wright as a self-employed individual who received $75,000 in gross income in 2020.

The application was filed with an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Form 1040, Schedule C Profit or Loss from Business, reflecting that Wright had earned $75,000 in 2020. However, as part of her guilty plea, Wright admitted that she was not self-employed, that she never earned $75,000 in any year, and that the IRS Form 1040 submitted with her application was fraudulent and created solely to obtain the PPP loan.

Wright transferred $3,000 to Sutton from the fraudulent PPP loan proceeds using a digital wallet application between May 7, and May 21, 2021. Wright further admitted that the transfers were compensation for facilitating the submission of Wright's fraudulent loan as they had agreed, and that she staggered her payments to Sutton and provided misleading transfer descriptions for them to conceal and disguise the nature and the source of the money.

Wright's guilty plea also revealed that she spent the remainder of the fraudulent loan proceeds on personal expenses.

Wright is scheduled to be sentenced on October 29, 2025, and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, up to three years of supervised release, and a $500,000 fine. Wright also owes up to $18,736.73 in restitution.

Wright is among several individuals indicted by a federal grand jury on charges alleging they and others conspired, as well as aided and abetted one another, to obtain fraudulent PPP loans totaling $140,625.

Co-defendants William Powell and Damisha Brown each pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud. Powell, 35, of Huntington, is scheduled to be sentenced on August 14, 2025, and Brown, 32, of Charleston, is scheduled to be sentenced on October 2, 2025.

Individuals with information about allegations of fraud involving COVID-19 are encouraged to report it by calling the National Center for Disaster Fraud Hotline at 866-720-5721, or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at: https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdwv/pr/charleston-woman-pleads-guilty-aiding-and-abetting-money-laundering-relation-covid-19