Lakeland man sentenced for COVID fraud, ordered to pay $370K

A Polk County man has been sentenced to federal prison after pleading guilty to charges in a COVID fraud case.

Jeanty Cherilus, 54, of Lakeland was indicted on five counts of wire fraud in September and pleaded guilty in January. He was sentenced to a year and a half in federal prison and must forfeit $370,000 — the amount of money he falsely obtained through fraudulent COVID-era loans, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida.

Prosecutors say that  from June 2020 until March 2021, while working as an owner of Natransusa, an auto parts business offering car maintenance and transportation services, Cherilus submitted applications for Paycheck Protection Program loans and an Economic Injury Disaster Loan using false information, including an inflated number of employees and average payroll. 

Although Cherilus certified the loans would be used for business-related purposes, the proceeds were instead used for personal reasons. The specific use for the funds were not disclosed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office. 

The case was investigated by the U.S. Agency for International Development-Office of Inspector General and the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee Task Force.

“USAID OIG will continue its aggressive pursuit of accountability for bad actors that exploit and abuse federal assistance programs, domestically or overseas,” says Acting Assistant Inspector General for Investigations Sean Bottary in a released statement. “As part of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee Task Force, we are proud to partner with the Department of Justice on this and other ongoing cases. As part of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee Task Force, this investigation was conducted by USAID OIG after identifying the fraudulent loan scheme through a USAID-related programming matter.”