Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Louisiana announced the sentencing of 21 Shreveport residents, two Bossier City residents and one from Coushatta in a fraud case involving COVID relief funds.
Indicted 16 months ago, all were members or associates of a Shreveport gang known as Step or Die. Combined, they applied for 72 loans under the Paycheck Protection Program, either claiming fake businesses or exaggerating revenue of existing businesses. They had received funds for 31 claims amounting to $600,000 and applied for 41 more loans targeting $2.
2 million, according to the U.S. Attorney's news release.
"This combination of sentences is a result of varying levels of culpability in this scheme and prior criminal histories," said U.S. Attorney Brandon Brown.
The longest prison sentence — five years and 11 months — went to Johntrell Crutchfield, 24, for wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, the same charges convicting all but four. He was ordered to pay $20,832 in restitution. Deanthony D.
Johnson , 24, was sentenced to three years, 10 months in prison and $28,575; and Tramarciea Ruffins, 31, to two years, nine months plus $20,415. Of the 24 convicted, 21 were ordered to pay restitution, most in amounts ranging from $20,058 to $30,050. The highest amounts were ordered for Destane Glass , 23, sentenced to three years and a month in prison along with $104,160 in restitution; and Samarri.
