Credit: U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Mississippi
Jan. 17, 2025-Zipora Hudson and Montreal Hudson, both of Olive Branch, were convicted of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering following a federal jury trial that concluded on January 15, 2025. Deandre Jones, also of Olive Branch, previously pled guilty in the case.
The Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) was a COVID-19 pandemic relief program administered by the Small Business Administration (“SBA”) to provide funding for small businesses affected by the economic downturn associated with the Coronavirus Pandemic. According to court documents, Zipora Hudson, her son, Montreal Hudson, and Deandre Jones utilized Zippy Bee, LLC tax preparation business in Charleston, Mississippi to create and file hundreds of PPP loan applications on behalf of borrowers that were not eligible to receive the loans. The defendants created fraudulent Schedule C tax documents to claim gross income amounts that far exceeded the real income for a particular business or claimed gross income amounts for businesses that never existed. The documents were created in order to receive PPP loans in amounts ranging from $19,000 to $20,833 per loan. For their efforts, the defendants required the borrowers to pay them a kickback out of the proceeds of each loan. The defendants used the illegally obtained money to purchase luxury vehicles and real estate, among other things.
“Zipora Hudson, Montreal Hudson, and Deandre Jones stole millions of dollars from American taxpayers while taking advantage of programs designed to help keep businesses afloat during a national crisis,” said U.S. Attorney Clay Joyner. “Our office will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to bring those who committed pandemic benefit fraud to justice and will use all available tools to recover the stolen monies.”
“The defendants fraudulently took money from the government that was supposed to assist businesses with keeping their personnel employed during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Demetrius Hardeman, Special Agent in Charge, IRS Criminal Investigation, Atlanta Field Office. “IRS Criminal Investigation special agents are continually pursuing and investigating individuals who took advantage of a program that was created to provide relief to small businesses so they could pay their employees and other expenses.”
Sentencing for Zipora Hudson and Montreal Hudson is set for April 24 and both defendants face a maximum penalty of 30 years for the wire fraud conspiracy and 20 years for the money laundering conspiracy. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
The scheme in the instant case was initially uncovered during the course of a civil investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Leary and Assistant U.S. Attorney Sam Wright prosecuted the case on behalf of United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Mississippi. The case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division along with investigators from the United States Attorney’s Office.
