WHITE PLAINS – A mother and daughter, both from Mount Vernon, were each sentenced in federal court in White Plains to prison for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and making false statements in connection with a scheme to defraud the US Small Business Administration of some $1.7 million.
Alicia Ayers, 37, was sentenced to two years in prison followed by six months of home confinement, while her mother, Ayers, 57, was sentenced to 42 months in prison on the same charges.
In June and July 2020, Alicia Ayers and her mother, Andrea Ayers, a former code enforcement officer for the City of Mount Vernon Police Department, used the identities of some 300 other people to submit approximately 315 online applications to the SBA, seeking over $3 million of funds from the SBA’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program.
The woman filed false applications representing to the SBA that the applicants were owners of businesses with 10 or more employees in order to the low-interest loans. However, the women knew that the applicants did not employ the number of people reported and that the majority of the applicants did not own businesses or have any employees.
