Agents of Behemoth

Spokane, Washington – Vanessa R. Waldref, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington, announced today that Tyler Keith Penix, age 37, of Bentonville, Arkansas, formerly known as Tyler Keith Andrews, pled guilty to fraudulently obtaining more than $16.5 million as part of a wide-ranging conspiracy to obtain fraudulent COVID relief funding.

A former Missouri state representative was sentenced in federal court today for a nearly $900,000 COVID-19 fraud scheme, as well as a separate $200,000 fraud scheme in which she made false claims about a fake stem cell treatment marketed through her clinics in southern Missouri, and for illegally providing prescription drugs to clients of those clinics.

Joe Harding, the now-former Florida Republican lawmaker who authored the extremist “Don’t Say Gay” bill could face up to 35 years in prison after pleading guilty Tuesday afternoon to federal felony fraud charges in a scheme to obtain $150,000 in COVID-19 relief funds, according to Florida Politics

Gladstone Njokem, age 36, of Hyattsville, Maryland, pleaded guilty on February 3, 2023, to federal charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, in connection with a scheme to fraudulently obtain more than $1.3 million in COVID-19 CARES Act unemployment insurance (UI) benefits.