Key Takeaways:
Elaine Escoe, 41, a name on the FBI's Most Wanted Fraudsters list, was returned from Jamaica to face charges in a $32 million COVID-19 relief fraud scheme.
Prosecutors say the group drew fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program, Restaurant Revitalization Fund, Shuttered Venue, and EIDL money using fake tax and bank records.
Escoe is the last of six defendants charged in the case, after five were convicted or pleaded guilty, with sentences reaching 235 months.
The FBI returned Elaine Escoe, one of the fugitives on its Most Wanted Fraudsters list, from Jamaica to South Florida on July 25 to face charges in a scheme that drew more than $32 million from federal COVID-19 relief programs, the Justice Department said.
Escoe, 41, was charged by indictment in 2025 with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and multiple counts of each. After a federal warrant went out in May 2025, she failed to appear and fled the country. The FBI added her to the Most Wanted Fraudsters list on June 8, and Jamaican authorities caught her on a tip while she was living under the fake identity Harley Newman.
According to court records, Escoe and her co-conspirators filed applications that faked the payroll, revenue, and operations of businesses to pull money from the Paycheck Protection Program, the Restaurant Revitalization Fund, the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant, and Economic Injury Disaster Loans. They built fake tax documents and fabricated bank records to support the claims, and some applications ran for third parties in exchange for kickbacks as high as half the loan.
She is the last of six defendants charged in the case. A federal jury convicted Alfred Davis, Cher Davis, and Latoya Clark in December 2025, and James McGhow and Gino Jourdan had already pleaded guilty. Alfred Davis drew the longest sentence at 235 months.
"Defendants cannot escape accountability simply by leaving the country."
Jason Reding Quiñones, US Attorney, Southern District of Florida
The arrest is one piece of a wider federal press against pandemic-era theft, the same effort behind the record $250 million Feeding Our Future conviction tally in Minnesota and the GAO estimate of $233 billion to $521 billion lost to fraud across federal programs each year. The pattern here is hard to ignore, the relief money went out on paperwork nobody verified in real time, and the recovery has become a multiyear manhunt.
People Also Ask
Who is Elaine Escoe?
Elaine Escoe is a 41-year-old defendant on the FBI's Most Wanted Fraudsters list, charged in a $32 million COVID-19 relief fraud scheme and returned from Jamaica to the Southern District of Florida on July 25, 2026.
What is the FBI Most Wanted Fraudsters list?
The FBI created the Most Wanted Fraudsters list on June 4, 2026 to track high-value fraud fugitives. Escoe is one of four people on the list captured within about five weeks.
How much COVID-19 relief fraud has the government uncovered?
Estimates run into the hundreds of billions of dollars across PPP, EIDL, and related programs. A recent GAO review put total yearly federal fraud losses at $233 billion to $521 billion.
What happens to Elaine Escoe now?
Escoe faces charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering in federal court in Florida under case number 25-cr-80076. The charges are allegations, and she is presumed innocent until proven guilty.