{"id":112411,"date":"2026-02-12T21:47:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T21:47:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/112411\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T21:47:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T21:47:06","slug":"4-sentenced-in-pennsylvania-as-part-of-11-5-million-covid-fraud-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/112411\/","title":{"rendered":"4 sentenced in Pennsylvania as part of $11.5 million COVID fraud scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHP) \u2014 Four men have been sentenced as part of their roles in a scheme in which they received over $11.5 million in COVID relief funds from fraudulent business loan applications. <\/p>\n<p>All four pleaded guilty to their roles in the scheme. U.S. District Judge Jennifer Wilson ordered them to each pay millions in restitution, according to a release from the U.S. Department of Justice.<\/p>\n<p>Joshua White, 44, of Yoe, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to eight years in prison.Creed White, 67, of Freeland, Maryland, was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Creed White is Joshua White&#8217;s father.Joseph Bailey, 54, of York, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to 46 months in prison. Kester Murray, 40, of Emigsville, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to two years of probation. <\/p>\n<p>The investigation focused on Creed White, who submitted about 120 fraudulent applications for federal financial assistance on behalf of 18 dormant businesses. <\/p>\n<p>According to the release, 40 of those applications were approved, leading to $11.5 million being transferred to White&#8217;s bank accounts. <\/p>\n<p>SEE PREVIOUS COVERAGE |  <a href=\"https:\/\/local21news.com\/news\/local\/us-attorney-charges-man-for-scheme-costing-in-pandemic-funds-attempted-fraud-ppp-eidl-covid19-funds-small-business-york-pennsylvania\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">U.S. Attorney charges man for scheme costing $11.5M in pandemic funds<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Creed White filed the applications in the names of various third parties, whose information he received from Joshua White. <\/p>\n<p>Bailey and Murray created fraudulent business, banking and tax records to support the loan applications, the release said. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen individuals manipulate pandemic relief programs for personal gain, they undermine public trust and divert critical resources from legitimate small businesses,&#8221; Amaleka McCall-Brathwaite, a special agent from the U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General, said in the release. <\/p>\n<p>Comment with Bubbles<\/p>\n<p>BE THE FIRST TO COMMENT<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;These sentencings underscore that fraud against federal relief programs will be aggressively investigated and prosecuted,&#8221; McCall-Brathwaite said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHP) \u2014 Four men have been sentenced as part of their roles in a scheme in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":{"0":"post-112411","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pennsylvania","8":"tag-pennsylvania","9":"tag-pennsylvania-headlines","10":"tag-pennsylvania-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}