Former Massachusetts Woman Indicted for Fraudulently Obtaining More than $100,000 in COVID-19 Rental Assistance Funds in California

BOSTON – A Minnesota woman, formerly of Holliston, Mass., has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Boston in connection with her fraudulent receipt of emergency rental assistance funds intended to provide housing assistance for individuals unable to pay rent due to a financial hardship related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Yvonette Joseph, 45, of Minneapolis, Minn., was indicted on two counts of theft of government money and two counts of unlawful monetary transactions. The defendant was previously charged by criminal complaint in August 2025 and released on conditions.

According to the charging documents, in or about November 2021, Joseph received more than $100,000 in Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) funds from the California Department of Housing & Community Development, the administrator of the ERA program for the state of California, after purported tenants submitted applications identifying Joseph as the landlord of a property in Los Angeles. Upon receipt of the funds, Joseph allegedly moved the funds from one bank account she controlled to another account she controlled, before wiring some of the funds to a bank account in Nigeria and wiring other funds to a cryptocurrency exchange – a digital marketplace where users can buy, sell and trade cryptocurrency.

In 2021, Congress established the Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) program to provide financial assistance to eligible low-income households to cover the costs of rent, rental arrears, utilities and other house-related expenses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The charges of theft of government money and unlawful monetary transactions each provide for a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release, a fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss, whichever is greater, forfeiture and restitution.  Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case.

United States Attorney Leah B. Foley and Loren J. Sciurba, Deputy Inspector General of the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Inspector General made the announcement. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristen A. Kearney of the Securities, Financial & Cyber Fraud Unit is prosecuting the case.

On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. The Task Force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with administering relief programs to prevent fraud by augmenting and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts. For more information on the department’s response to the pandemic, please visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus and https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus/combatingfraud.

Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline via the https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/webform/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.

The details contained in the charging documents are allegations. The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.