| Woman
Pled To COVID NYC Hotel Fraud Now Wants
Much Less than 33 - 41 Month Guideline
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell
Book
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN
SDNY MAG COURT
EXCLUSIVE, May 4 - In
the U.S. District Court for
the Southern District of New
York on December 2, a guilty
plea was taken by Magistrate
Judge Stuart D. Aaron from
Chanette Lewis, charged with
participating in schemes to
defraud the New York City
COVID-19 Hotel Room Isolation
Program, to obtain fraudulent
unemployment benefits, and to
defraud NYCHA.
Inner City
Press was there, the only
media in the Mag Court.
Thread:
Plea agreement
has sentencing guideline of 46
to 57 months.
Judge Aaron: How
do you plead?
Lewis: Guilty...
It was only one month, April
to May, 2020. Me and my
co-Ds sold hotel rooms using
wires. Then the NYCHA count,
larger apartments - not for
myself!
It
emerged that the defendant
used a COVID hotel call
center, and information on
doctors to book and sell rooms
for health care workers to
others. Also advertised on
Facebook how to scam NYCHA-
but disputes that anyone ever
moved into the apartments. The
Assistant US Attorney insists
they did.
Also, the
AUSA read out what the US
would prove on unemployment
fraud, but Lewis' Federal
Defender pointed out she is
not pleading guilty to that,
saying it will be addressed at
sentencing.
The plea was
accepted; the sentencing is
set for May 18 at 3 pm.
And on December
13, another plea: "Hearing as
to Tatiana Benjamin held on
12/13/2022. Deft. Pres w/att
Farinella, AUSA Neff. Court
reporter. Deft pleas guilty to
count 2 of the Indictment.
Judge Cott Recommends that
Judge K[] accept plea. PSR
ordered. Sent date set for
5/18/2023."
This case is US
v. Lewis,
21-cr-729
(Kaplan)
An early co-D,
also courtroom exclusive, 1st
reported here: this COVID-19
fraud plea agreement is for a
sentencing guideline of 33 to
41 months
Tatiana Daniel's
hair is deep purple. At first
this morning she said she was
NOT prepared to plead guilty.
144 nights of stolen hotel
rooms, with co-defendant
working in the City's program
Tatiana Daniel
falsely collected unemployment
using 10 people's Social
Security numbers.
Cell phone had
fake COVID results; she got
fraudulent PPP loans from the
SBA - for her "illegal
bootlegging operation."
Defense
lawyer Ezra Spilke confers
with AUSA Neff. Seems there's
a problem with the plea
agreement...
AUSA Neff:
She is admitting overt act of
selling fabricated COVID
results on 7/20/21 and
8/2/21.
Spilke: Her
spouse Tiana is here. (Only us
3 in gallery - the third
apparently a colleague of
Spilke).
Judge Kaplan was
set to sentence on March 29,
2023 at 2:30 pm. But that was
pushed back to May 18.
On May 4, while
Judge Kaplan presided over the
Carroll v. Trump trial,
Tatiana Daniel's sentencing
memo was filed. Her sentencing
guidelines are 33 to 41
months. She asks for "a
substantial downward
variance," emphasizing that
she was willing to plead
guilty earlier than the
prosecutor's schedule allowed,
and that being a convicted
felon is punishment in itself.
Inner City Press
will stay on the case(s).
The case is US v.
Daniel, 21-cr-729 (Kaplan)
***
Your
support means a lot. As little as $5 a month
helps keep us going and grants you access to
exclusive bonus material on our Patreon
page. Click
here to become a patron.
Feedback:
Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
SDNY Press Room 480, front cubicle
500 Pearl Street, NY NY 10007 USA
Mail: Box 20047, Dag
Hammarskjold Station NY NY 10017
Reporter's mobile (and weekends):
718-716-3540
Other, earlier Inner City Press are
listed here,
and some are available in the ProQuest
service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright 2006-2022 Inner City
Press, Inc. To request reprint or other
permission, e-contact Editorial [at]
innercitypress.com
|
,
