Houma Man Sentenced for Making False Statements to Federal Agents

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA- United States Attorney Duane A. Evans announced that DONDRE MORGAN,("MORGAN"),age 32, of Houma, LA, was sentenced on September 10, 2024 for Making False Statements to Federal Agents, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1001(a)(2).

According to court documents, on April 7, 2022, MORGAN made materially false statements to special agents with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Inspector General, Criminal Investigations Division. Specifically, MORGAN lied about his involvement and participation in a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan fraud scheme.

United States District Judge Darrel James Papillion sentenced MORGAN to tenmonths of imprisonment, followed by three (3) years of supervised release, payment of restitution in the amount of $55,945.33, and a $100.00 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. The Task Force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with administering relief programs to prevent fraud by, among other methods, augmenting and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts. For more information on the Department's response to the pandemic, please visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus. The Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of the Inspector General, is an active member of the PRAC Fraud Task Force.

The PRAC was established to promote transparency and facilitate coordinated oversight of the federal government's COVID-19 pandemic response. The PRAC's 20 member Inspectors General identify major risks that cross program and agency boundaries to detect fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement in the more than $5 trillion in COVID-19 spending, including spending via the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program. This case was also supported by the PRAC's Pandemic Analytics Center of Excellence, which applies the latest advances in analytic and forensic technologies to help OIGs and law enforcement pursue data-driven pandemic relief fraud investigations."

Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice's National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.

The United States Attorney's Office would also like to acknowledge the assistance of the Department of Veteran Affairs, Office of the Inspector General; United States Department of Labor, Office of the Inspector General; United States Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations; and the United States Secret Service's Cyber Fraud Task Force, consisting of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office, Lafourche Parish Sheriff's Office, Thibodeaux Police Department, and the Louisiana Bureau of Investigation, with this matter. The prosecution of this case is being handled by Assistant United States Attorney Brian M. Klebba, Chief of the Financial Crimes Unit; Assistant United States Attorney Edward Rivera, COVID-19 Fraud Coordinator of the Financial Crimes Unit; and Assistant United States Attorney Mary Katherine Kaufman, of the General Crimes Unit.