A fugitive on the FBI’s Most Wanted Fraudsters List was returned to Florida to face federal charges for her alleged role in a $32 million federal COVID-19 relief fund fraud.
Elaine Escoe, 41, was charged by indictment in 2025 with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering, as well as multiple substantive counts of wire fraud and money laundering.
Escoe had been on the run since May 2025 and was captured in Jamaica while living under the fake identity of “Harley Newman.” After being charged, she failed to appear in court and fled.
On June 4, the FBI announced the creation of the Most Wanted Fraudsters List.
Four days later, Escoe was added to the list, and she was apprehended, with help from Jamaican authorities, less than two months later.
“This Most Wanted Fraudster allegedly obtained tens of millions in COVID-19 relief, stealing critical resources from legitimate businesses during a national crisis,” said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche in a July 25 statement.
“She fled the country believing she could escape justice but ultimately could not. Those who exploit taxpayer-funded programs will be held accountable by this Department of Justice, no matter how long it takes or where they attempt to hide,” he added.
The operation involved the FBI, the U.S. Marshals Service, the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service Regional Security Office at the U.S. Embassy in Kingston, and Jamaica’s Constabulary Force and Fugitive Apprehension Team.
“This most-wanted fraudster faces charges stemming from a multimillion-dollar scheme to defraud taxpayer-funded COVID-19 relief programs,” said Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the National Fraud Enforcement Division.
“The Fraud Division will continue to vigorously prosecute those who steal from the American people,” he added.
Escoe and her co-conspirators are accused of submitting or causing the submission of fraudulent applications seeking more than $32 million from Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), Restaurant Revitalization Fund, Shuttered Venue Operators Grant, and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) funds.
These applications were then used to falsely represent the existence of payroll, earnings, and operations to qualify and get the largest amount of federal relief funding.
This included fake tax documents, fabricated bank records, and other false financial records that lenders and program administrators relied upon in approving loans and grants.
Authorities said that applications were submitted on behalf of businesses controlled by the conspirators, while others were submitted for third parties in exchange “for substantial kickbacks,” sometimes as much as 50 percent of the loan proceeds.
The fraud proceeds were subsequently laundered among the conspirators.
Escoe is the last remaining defendant charged in the scheme.
After a trial in December, Alfred Davis, Cher Davis, and Latoya Clark were convicted by a federal jury. James McGhow and Gino Jourdan previously pleaded guilty.
Alfred Davis was sentenced to 235 months’ imprisonment, Cher Davis to 87 months, Clark to 70 months, Jourdan to 46 months, and McGhow to 42 months.
Under both Presidents Donald Trump and his successor Joe Biden, Congress authorized about $4.6 trillion in emergency COVID-19 relief between 2020 and 2021 to help families and businesses “respond to and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.”
GAO said fraudsters defrauded at least 19 different pandemic-relief programs.
It said that three of the more commonly defrauded pandemic-relief programs included the Department of Labor’s Unemployment Insurance programs, the Small Business Administration’s PPP, and the COVID-19 EIDL program.
According to a 2023 report by Open the Books, a conservative nonprofit government-spending watchdog, COVID-aid programs involved the “largest public fraud in history.”
According to their calculations, there was an estimated $400 billion in fraud in COVID-aid programs due to “rushed rollout and lax oversight.”
