Ferris Brooks, 41, of Plymouth, Massachusetts, was sentenced today for his role in scheme to defraud COVID-19 relief funds. U.S. Senior District Court Judge William G. Young ordered three years of supervised release, with the first six months to be served under home confinement. Brooks pleaded guilty to theft of government property in February 2024.
Details of the Fraud Scheme by Ferris Brooks
Between April and December 2020, Brooks conducted an elaborate scheme in which he fraudulently applied for government benefits aimed at pandemic relief. His fraudulent activities included applying multiple times in his own name, as well as in the names of his friends and family, each application containing various false pieces of information. Brooks made use of such COVID-19 relief programs as:
Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL): Ferris Brooks applied to the U.S. Small Business Administration on behalf of a fictional business and received money after making false statements.
Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA): Ferris Brooks filed fraudulent applications for unemployment benefits.
Economic Impact Payments: To obtain these stimulus payments, Ferris Brooks filed bogus tax returns using the names and fictitious employment data of his friends and family members.
The fraudulent claims succeeded in shifting over $150,000 in relief funds to bank accounts controlled by Brooks, who then transferred the funds to his other accounts and distributed the proceeds among his conspirators.
Brooks Fraud: Investigation and Prosecution
The case was investigated and prosecuted by members of the federal interagency task force. Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy, Jonathan Mellone, Special Agent in Charge of the Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General, Harry Chavis, Jr., Special Agent in Charge of the IRS Criminal Investigation in Boston, and Ketty Larco-Ward, Inspector in Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Boston Division, made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Markham of the Securities, Financial & Cyber Fraud Unit prosecuted the case.
Government’s Response to COVID-19 Fraud
In response to the pervasive fraud targeting COVID-19 relief funds, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force on May 17, 2021. In that effort, the Task Force was designed to bolster the Department of Justice’s fight against fraud related to the pandemic through:
Enhanced Coordination: Streamlining interagency cooperation to ensure that government efforts in combating fraud are a unified front.
Resource Allocation: Deploying resources and techniques in the identification of fraudulent schemes and those responsible.
Information Sharing: Utilizing the lessons and data gleaned from earlier enforcement measures for the prevention of future fraud.
The Task Force has been key to both prosecuting to those who have exploit relief programs and administering these programs to ensure their integrity and proper distribution to persons in real need.
Impact and conclusion
Today’s sentencing of Ferris Brooks demonstrates the federal government’s dedication to investigating and bringing charges against those who commit fraud, particularly those that seek to exploit critical relief efforts in times of national emergency. This coordinated effort among investigative and prosecuting components again demonstrates the value of interagency coordination against complex fraud schemes.
The sentencing of Ferris Brooks shows that exploiting national crises to get an undue advantage out of them comes at a very high cost and reiterates the importance of strict monitoring and enforcement mechanisms. These actions keep reiterating all the time that the importance of public resources and their availability for the purpose they are meant to serve, particularly during an emergency, is ensured.
Sentencing Ferris Brooks is one of the efforts of the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force and its accompanying initiatives aimed at ensuring public trust and integrity in governmental relief programs during the COVID-19 pandemic and afterwards.
