A Tennessee woman spent thousands in COVID relief loans on plastic surgery while staying at a Trump resort in Florida, all while being under supervision for wire fraud charges.
Leslie Bethea, 30, plead guilty to wire fraud after spending about $8,000 of a $21,000 Paycheck Protection Program loan she lied to obtain during the pandemic.
Bethea applied for that PPP loan - a fully forgivable loan intended to tide over people whose income was compromised by the pandemic - in March, 2021, just months after being released from prison early after serving a little over half of a two year sentence for a 2019 wire fraud charge.
While out on supervised release, Bethea applied for the loan, claiming on the form that she's made she had made $100,000 in 2019 - despite being imprisoned that year - and also that she'd never been convicted of fraud.
After being caught, Bethea plead guilty and was sentenced to six and a half years in a federal prison. She will also be required to pay back the loan.
Leslie Bethea, 30, plead guilty to wire fraud after spending about $8,000 of a $21,000 Paycheck Protection Program loan she lied to obtain during the pandemic
Bethea spend at least $3,000 for a five-day sojourn at the Trump International Beach Resort, where one-bedroom suites can go for more than $600 per night
After lying on her PPP application, Bethea was granted the funds a month later in April.
Shortly after she lit out from her home in Surgoinsville and headed south to Sunny Isles, located on the coast just north of Miami.
Once there, she dropped about $3,000 for a five-day sojourn at the Trump International Beach Resort, where one-bedroom suites can go for more than $600 per night.
While there, she spent another $5,000 for an 'elective cosmetic surgery,' court documents showed.
It is unclear what the plastic surgery procedure was.
After returning home to Tennessee, Bethea lied on a report to her probation officer.
She said she'd only received a mere $200 that April, and that she'd spent no more than $500.
Bethea also stated she had never left Tennessee in April.
Bethea's previous wire fraud crime comprised a scheme involving fake credit cards and identity theft
One-bedroom suites at the Trump International Beach Resort, where one-bedroom suites can go for more than $600 per night. can go for more than $600 per night
Bethea was ultimately bagged by the Secret Service, and she was indicted in June 2022.
She plead guilty to an agreement which noted 'elective cosmetic surgery and luxury vacations were not authorized expenditures for PPP loans.'
In addition to more than six years of prison time, Bethea was sentenced to three years of supervised release, and was ordered to pay back $20,805 of the funds she stole from the government.
Bethea's previous wire fraud crime comprised a scheme involving fake credit cards and identity theft.
On top of the prison time for that charge, she was required to repay $85,000 in money she stole.
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