Louisiana Woman Gets Over 4 Years in Federal Prison for $267K Pandemic Fraud

Reha Janee Arvie, age 35, of Westwego, LA, was sentenced for Conspiracy to Commit Mail Fraud,  Acting United States Attorney Michael M. Simpson announced. 

Court documents say that around July 2020, Arvie defrauded, and attempted to defraud various state offices of Unemployment Insurance through the submission of about 100 fraudulent UI applications. Arvie recruited friends and family, via Facebook, to file these fraudulent UI applications. 

Additionally, Arvie filed fraudulent UI applications for herself and others, in various states including Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Indiana, Missouri, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Utah, Texas, and the territory of Guam. Arvie charged those for whom she filed fraudulent UI claims fees, ranging from $1,200.00 to $1,500.00. For example, Arvie obtained $267,612.00 in UI benefits from California’s Employment Development Department. Moreover, during the investigation, Arvie lied to federal agents during an interview.

United States District Judge Sarah S. Vance sentenced Arvie to 52 months imprisonment, followed by 3 years of supervised release and payment of a $100 mandatory special assessment fee.   

On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. 

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Co-Founder of Paycheck Protection Program Service Sentenced for $63M COVID-19 Relief Fraud Scheme

A co-founder of a lender service provider was sentenced to 10 years in prison for defrauding the Paycheck Protection Program by $63 million.

Court documents say that Stephanie Hockridge, also known as Stephanie Reis, 42, of Rio Grande, Puerto Rico, and previously of Arizona, co-founded Blueacorn in April 2020, purportedly to assist small businesses and individuals in obtaining PPP loans.

The U.S. Small Business Administration guaranteed the loans under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act. The defendant was also ordered to pay over $63 million in restitution.

Hockridge and her co-conspirators fabricated documents, including payroll records, tax documentation and bank statements. Hockridge and her co-conspirators charged borrowers kickbacks based on a percentage of the funds received.

Hockridge and others offered a personalized service to their clients called “VIPPP” to help potential borrowers complete PPP loan applications. Hockridge recruited co-conspirators to work as VIPPP referral agents and coach borrowers on how to submit false PPP loan applications. To get more kickbacks from borrowers and a higher percentage of lender fees from the SBA, Hockridge and her co-conspirators submitted PPP loan applications that they knew contained materially false information. In total, Hockridge and her coconspirators processed over $63 million in fraudulent PPP loans.

On June 20, a jury found Hockridge guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew R. Galeotti of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould for the Northern District of Texas; Acting Assistant Special Agent in Charge Don Daley of the Office of Inspector General for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Western Region; and Special Agent in Charge Christopher J. Altemus Jr. of the IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) Dallas Field Office made the announcement.

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Disgraced ex-news anchor Stephanie Hockridge sentenced in massive COVID fraud scheme — will be jailed with Ghislaine Maxwell

Disgraced ex-TV anchor Stephanie Hockridge will spend the next ten years behind bars for her role in a multi-million-dollar COVID fraud scheme – serving her time in the same cushy lockup as notorious sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell.

The 42-year-old, a former Phoenix TV anchor turned entrepreneur, was sentenced in Texas federal court Friday and ordered to cough up nearly $64 million in restitution for the bogus Paycheck Protection Program loans she helped secure during the height of the pandemic, the Justice Department announced.

Hockridge, found guilty in June of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, will report to prison on Dec. 30.

She will be locked up at Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas — the same minimum-security facility that houses Jeffrey Epstein’s madam, disgraced Theranos fraudster Elizabeth Holmes, and “Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” scammer Jen Shah, AZ Family reported.

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UK wins fight to hide data linking Covid vaccines to deaths

Under a recent ruling by the UK Information Commissioner’s Office, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) will not be required to release data that may show a link between Covid-19 vaccines and excess deaths. The decision follows a two-year legal battle initiated by the nonprofit group UsForThem, which had filed a freedom of information request for access to the data.

The agency argued that releasing the information could cause “distress” to families of the deceased and be used to promote “misinformation” about the vaccines. Critics say this reasoning serves more as a shield for institutional self-preservation than public interest.

Legal director Ben Kingsley of UsForThem called the UKHSA’s decision “a desperation that this data should not, in any form, see the light of day.” The watchdog group TrialSite News wrote that by relying on emotional harm rather than scientific concerns, the government “inadvertently strengthened the very narrative it likely hoped to avoid.”

Among those speaking out are vaccine-injured individuals like Danielle Baker, a former hospice nurse who was left permanently disabled after receiving a Covid-19 shot.

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South Florida Congresswoman Charged with Stealing $5 Million in FEMA Funds and Making Illegal Campaign Contributions

A federal grand jury in Miami has returned an indictment charging Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick and several co-defendants with stealing federal disaster funds, laundering the proceeds, and using the money to support her 2021 congressional campaign.

According to the indictment, Cherfilus-McCormick, 46, and her brother Edwin Cherfilus, 51, both of Miramar, worked through their family health-care company on a FEMA-funded COVID-19 vaccination staffing contract in 2021. In July 2021, the company received an overpayment of $5 million in FEMA funds.

The indictment alleges that the defendants conspired to steal that $5 million and routed it through multiple accounts to disguise its source. Prosecutors allege that a substantial portion of the misappropriated funds was used as candidate contributions to Cherfilus-McCormick’s 2021 congressional campaign and for the personal benefit of the defendants.

The indictment further alleges that Cherfilus-McCormick and Nadege Leblanc, 46, of Miramar, arranged additional contributions using straw donors, funneling other monies from the FEMA-funded Covid-19 contract to friends and relatives who then donated to the campaign as if using their own money.

The indictment also charges Cherfilus-McCormick and her 2021 tax preparer David K. Spencer, 41, of Davie, with conspiring to file a false federal tax return. According to the indictment, they falsely claimed political spending and other personal expenses as business deductions and inflated charitable contributions in order to reduce her tax obligations.

“Using disaster relief funds for self-enrichment is a particularly selfish, cynical crime,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “No one is above the law, least of all powerful people who rob taxpayers for personal gain. We will follow the facts in this case and deliver justice.”

U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones for the Southern District of Florida stated, “Today’s indictment shows no one is above the law. This indictment reflects our Office’s commitment to follow the facts, apply the law, and protect the American taxpayer. Public money belongs to the American people. When FEMA funds are diverted for personal or political gain, it erodes trust and harms us all. We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to ensure that American taxpayer dollars are used as intended and that the public’s trust is safeguarded.”

If convicted, Cherfilus-McCormick faces up to 53 years in prison. Edwin Cherfilus faces up to 35 years, Leblanc up to 10 years, and Spencer up to 33 years.
U.S. Attorney Reding Quiñones; Special Agent in Charge Brett D. Skiles of the FBI, Miami Field Office; and Special Agent in Charge Ronald A. Loecker of the IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), Florida Field Office, made the announcement.

FBI Miami and the IRS-CI Florida Field Office are investigating the case.

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Was COVID Always A CIA Plot?

According to newly released emails, the United States Intelligence Community, led by the CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, held regular meetings with Dr. Ralph Baric, one of America’s leading coronavirus experts, since at least 2015. 

Senator Rand Paul’s office has worked for years to obtain the documents. 

Baric has been accused of engineering the Covid-19 virus in his lab at the University of North Carolina, but he has never had to testify about his role in the pandemic despite his well-documented collaboration with the Wuhan Institute of Virology. 

The newly released emails reveal that the CIA hoped to discuss “Coronavirus evolution and possible natural human adaptation with Baric” and that Baric held quarterly meetings with members of the Intelligence Community. 

These emails are just the latest additions to the suspicious amalgamation of facts implicating the US Intelligence Community’s role in the origins of the pandemic, as discussed in The Covid Response at Five Years.

A very brief overview of the timeline suggests that the CIA and the Intelligence Community are implicated in the creation of the virus, a lab leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and censorship to evade any public scrutiny for their role in the pandemic. 

  • 2015: The Intelligence Community held quarterly meetings with Dr. Ralph Baric and discussed “possible human adaptation” to coronavirus evolution. 
  • 2019-2020: The CIA had a spy working at the Wuhan Institute of Virology doing “both offensive and defensive work” with pathogens, according to Seymour Hersh. That asset reports in early 2020 that there was a laboratory accident that resulted in the infection of a researcher. 
  • March 18, 2020: The Department of Homeland Security replaced Health and Human Services as the lead Federal Agency responding to Covid, as explained in depth in Debbie Lerman’s The Deep State Goes Viral
  • Spring 2020: The CIA offered bribes to scientists to bury their findings refuting the “proximal origin” theory advanced by Dr. Anthony Fauci, according to a whistleblower. The House Oversight Committee explains: “According to the whistleblower, at the end of its review, six of the seven members of the Team believed the intelligence and science were sufficient to make a low confidence assessment that COVID-19 originated from a laboratory in Wuhan, China.” Then, however, the “six members were given a significant monetary incentive to change their position.”
  • 2020: Dr. Fauci began holding secret meetings at CIA headquarters “without a record of entry” in order to “influence its Covid-19 origins investigation,” according to a whistleblower. “He knew what was going on…He was covering his ass and he was trying to do it with the Intel community,” the whistleblower told Congress.”
  • 2021: Scientists in the Department of Defense compiled significant evidence suggesting Covid emerged from a lab leak, but President Biden’s Director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines, banned them from presenting their evidence or participating in a discussion on the origins of the virus.
  • 2021: CISA, an agency within the Department of Homeland Security, implemented a program known as “switchboarding,” where officials dictated to Big Tech platforms what content is permissible or prohibited speech. 
  • 2022: The Department of Homeland Security announced it will establish a “Disinformation Governance Board.” The Ministry of Truth is only discontinued when the absurdity of its chief censor, Nina Jankowicz, receives sufficient blowback from the public.

What exactly was the play here?

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We know exactly how and why the DNA is in the Moderna and Pfizer vials

This past week has been epic for me. Not only did I have the extreme pleasure of volunteering alongside Kevin McKernan and Charles Rixey at Medicinal Genomics, but we have pretty much confirmed how the DNA is in the Moderna and Pfizer COVID shot vials.

Ages ago, when I was presenting the original findings that there was DNA in these vials, I was sleuthing how this happened by looking into the N1-methylpseudouridine modified RNA synthesis pathway as part of Process 2 manufacturing. Process 2 involved using a plasmid/E. coli system, don’t forget. And also don’t forget that this methodology was bait ‘n’ switched and was not safety tested.

N1-methylpseudouridine has a higher melting temperature than Uridine.1 (Higher thermal energy or specific enzymatic activity is required to disrupt base pairing.) What this means in terms of it binding a cognate base is that it will require a very high temperature to rip them apart. Either that, or it will require a specific enzyme. Two examples of such specific enzymes are RNase-H (in us) and RNase-XT (on bench). It is well-known in nerdy science circles that DNase1 – the enzyme the COVID shot manufacturers used to chop up the DNA for endpoint synthesis cleaning – does not work on DNA:RNA hybrids.

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“You Can’t Handle the Truth”: UK Health Watchdog Reportedly Refuses To Release Data On Vaccine Deaths

The United Kingdom’s public health service is reportedly refusing to release data on the potential relationship between the COVID vaccine and excess deaths.

The reason?

It would upset people to know the truth.

The question is whether British citizens have become so passive and yielding that they will support their government, keeping them from learning the facts about vaccines and allowing them to reach their own conclusions.

The UK has long embraced speech controls and censorship to protect citizens from unacceptable views or what one criminal defendant was told were “toxic ideologies.”

Social media companies assisted governments in censoring opposing scientific views during the pandemic, including those regarding the potential dangers of the vaccines.

Over the years, dissenting faculty members have been forced out of scientific and academic organizations for challenging preferred conclusions on subjects ranging from transgender transitions to COVID-19 protections to climate change. Some were barred from speaking at universities or blacklisted for their opposing views.

Many of the exiled experts were ultimately proven correct in challenging the efficacy of surgical masks or the need to shut down our schools and businesses. Scientists moved like a herd of lemmings on the origin of the virus, crushing those who suggested that the most likely explanation is a lab leak (a position that federal agencies would later embrace).

Scientists have worked with the government in suppressing dissenting views. For example, The Wall Street Journal released a report on how the Biden administration suppressed dissenting views supporting the lab leak theory, as dissenting scientists were blacklisted and targeted.

When experts within the Biden Administration found that the lab theory was the most likely explanation for COVID-19, they were told not to share their data publicly and were warned about being “off the reservation.”

Universities and associations joined the crackdown. Scientists questioning the efficacy of those blue surgical masks and the six-foot rule were suppressed. So were those arguing that we should, as in Europe, keep schools open. These experts were also later vindicated, but few were rehired or reestablished in universities or associations.

It was all done in the name of protecting the public from opposing views or data.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) shows that little has changed. 

According to the Telegraphthe agency declared that releasing the data would lead to the “distress or anger” of bereaved relatives if a link were to be discovered.

It also suggested that the data might stress or undermine the mental health of the families and friends of people who died.

The story has received little attention in the media, which previously joined efforts to suppress opposing views during the pandemic.

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Virginia Democrat Ibraheem Samirah Who Infamously DISRUPTED President Trump Sentenced in Explosive COVID Fraud Scheme

In a delicious twist of irony, Ibraheem Sabri Samirah, the Palestinian-American Democrat who infamously disrupted President Trump’s 2019 speech in Jamestown with a “Deport Hate” sign, has been nailed for wire fraud in a blatant PPP loan scam.

Samirah, 34, a dentist by trade, cooked up fake payroll records for his clinic, Nova Healthy Smiles PLLC, claiming four employees and $33,333 in monthly wages back in early 2020.

But as court documents reveal, those “employees” – including himself – weren’t paid a dime until after the loan came through in May 2020.

He even wrote checks to these phantom workers, only for them to funnel the money right back to him.

When it came time for loan forgiveness in August 2021, Samirah lied again, swearing the funds went to legitimate expenses like payroll and utilities.

In reality, the only “permissible” use was a pittance in employer taxes remitted to the IRS, the rest lined his pockets.

Samirah, who built his political career on railing against “systemic oppression” and championing Palestinian causes, apparently saw no issue with exploiting a Trump-era relief program designed to save jobs.

His actions echo the entitlement we’ve come to expect from far-left Democrats who preach equity while grabbing whatever they can.

Federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia laid it out plain in the July 2025 information: Samirah devised a scheme to defraud Sonabank (now Primis Bank) and the Small Business Administration, transmitting false wires across state lines to secure and forgive the loan.

He waived indictment and pleaded guilty in July, avoiding a trial that could have exposed even more dirt.

Come October 30, a judge sentenced him to three years’ probation and ordered $88,000 in restitution, a light slap considering the felony conviction strips him of voting rights and bars him from future office.

In 2019, President Trump was interrupted by Samirah, a member of Virginia’s House of Delegates, during a speech marking the 400th anniversary of the first meeting of the Virginia legislature in Jamestown in 1619–the first representative legislative assembly in the Western Hemisphere.

Democrat Ibraheem Samirah stood near the front of the stage facing the audience, holding several signs strung together and yelling, “Mr. President, you can’t send us back, Virginia is our home!”  Supporters of the President booed and chanted, “Trump! Trump! Trump!”

The messages on the signs read, “Go Back to Your Corrupted Home”, “Deport Hate” and “Reunite My Family And All Shattered by Systemic Discrimination”.

Ibraheem interrupted the president to scream about his deported Palestinian father.

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Spy Agencies Cozied Up To Wuhan Virologist Before Lying About Pandemic

A close collaborator of virologists who studied coronaviruses in Wuhan frequently advised America’s top spy agency in the lead-up to the pandemic, and that same agency suppressed intelligence on the parallels between COVID-19 and their research.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s (ODNI) hub for foreign biological threats dismissed the intelligence pointing to a lab accident in Wuhan as “misinformation” in January 2021, two former government sources who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive internal meetings told the Daily Caller News Foundation. New documents show that intelligence risked implicating ODNI’s own bioengineering advisor — University of North Carolina professor Ralph Baric.

Baric, who engineered novel coronaviruses with the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), advised ODNI four times a year on biological threats, according to documents released Oct. 30 by Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul.

Baric did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.

The professor’s ties to American intelligence may run even deeper, the documents reveal, as ODNI facilitated a meeting between the CIA and Baric about a project on coronaviruses in September 2015.

The email exchange with the subject line “Request for Your Expertise” shows an unnamed government official with a CIA-affiliated email address pitching a “possible project” to Baric relating to “[c]oronavirus evolution and possible natural human adaptation.”

The new documents shed a bit of light on a question members of Congress have posed for years: Whether our own intelligence agencies knew more about the likelihood of a lab origin of COVID than they told the public.

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