Louisiana Woman to Prison After Blowing $100K in COVID Funds

A Louisiana woman will be serving prison time after she was convicted of misusing COVID-19 relief funds.

47-year-old Gerneshia Williams of Baton Rouge was sentenced to 13 months in federal prison.

It was not reported the exact amount of funds that Williams was able to obtain as part of the U.S. Small Business Administration's COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program. However, she did knowingly use more than $100,000 in loan money for her own use.

Officials said that Williams misused at least $110,030.47 of the loan proceeds on herself and others. Included in that was more than $30,000 on jewelry and more than $20,000 on a destination wedding in Florida.

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In obtaining the loans, Williams promised to use the proceeds solely as working capital to alleviate economic injury caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Because that obviously didn't happen, Williams was sentenced to the aforementioned 13 months in federal prison, three years of supervised release after her prison term, and was ordered to pay $110,030.47 in restitution.