Woman who used COVID relief funds for plastic surgery and Trump resort trip gets 6 years in prison

A Tennessee judge on Monday sentenced a woman to more than six years in federal prison and another three years of supervised release, for allegedly obtaining fraudulent coronavirus relief money and subsequently using it for personal luxuries, including cosmetic surgery and a stay at the Trump resort in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida.

The woman, identified by the U.S. Department of Justice in a news release as Leslie Bethea of Surgoinsville, Tennessee, was indicted last June on federal charges for wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering and making false statements. Bethea pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of making a false statement to a probation officer, the Justice Department said. In addition to her prison sentence, Bethea has been ordered to pay close to $21,000 in restitution.

Bethea, 30, is accused of submitting false information and forged financial records to the U.S. government while applying for a loan under the Payroll Protection Program, which she did ultimately receive although she did not qualify for it. The PPP, a small business loan program backed by the U.S. Treasury that was developed to support struggling companies in the wake of the pandemic, granted Bethea $20,805, according to the Justice Department — an amount based on her allegedly faulty application.