Scranton Man Sentenced to 57 Months in Federal Prison For Nearly One Million Dollar Covid-19 Pandemic Fraud and Money Laundering Scheme

SCRANTON - The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Yoel Weiss, age 43, of Scranton, Pennsylvania, was sentenced on Wednesday, August 20, 2025, to 57 months in prison by United States District Judge Karoline Mehalchick, related to his plea of guilty for one count of wire fraud -- false statements to the Small Business Administration, and one count of unlawful monetary transactions (money laundering). Additionally, Weiss was ordered to pay $858,000 in restitution and will have to serve a 3-year term of supervised release following his incarceration. 

           According to Acting United States Attorney John Gurganus, in June and July of 2020, during the on-going Covid-19 pandemic, Weiss filed at least seven fraudulent applications for pandemic stimulus funds through the Economic Injury and Disaster Loan (EIDL) program. The information on those forms, in support of his request for stimulus funds, was fraudulent. The applications submitted by Weiss were filed on behalf of corporate entities that did not, in fact, have actual business operations, and that bore false dates of business establishment, false employee headcount information, and fabricated gross revenues, costs of goods sold, and lost rental income.

Further, upon receipt of the nearly one million dollars in stimulus funds, Weiss did not spend those funds on approved pandemic-related expenses, but instead spent the money on retail shopping, credit card debt, a real estate purchase of a distillery in New York, and to fund other personal expenses and real estate purchases. Weiss additionally received a sentencing enhancement related to obstruction of justice when he attempted to influence and prevent the testimony of a witness who was subpoenaed to testify in front of a federal grand jury.

“Mr. Weiss deliberately and repeatedly defrauded the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program designed to help small business owners during the COVID pandemic for his own personal enrichment,” said Philadelphia Field Office Special Agent in Charge Yury Kruty.   “Yesterday’s sentencing holds Mr. Weiss accountable for his criminal actions and shows that our office continues working to bring charges against individuals who commit these crimes.”

The EIDL program, funded by the March 2020 CARES Act, was designed to help small businesses facing financial difficulties during the COVID-19 pandemic.  EIDL funds are offered in low-interest rate loans, designated for specific business expenses, such as fixed debts, payroll, and business obligation.

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, among other methods, 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.

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 at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at: https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.

The case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigations. Assistant United States Attorney Luisa Honora Berti prosecuted the case.

# # #