Texas man convicted in $6.8 MILLION Seattle-area Covid rent-fraud scheme

Jahri Asad Cunningham, 48, of Houston, was convicted in US District Court in Seattle on three counts of wire fraud and one count of money laundering, becoming the final defendant convicted in the six-person scheme led by his sister, Paradise Williams.

According to the US Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington, the group submitted fraudulent applications seeking more than $6.8 million in pandemic benefits and successfully collected more than $3.3 million. Cunningham personally received $344,240 in benefits intended to help people struggling to remain in their homes during the pandemic.

After Cunningham unsuccessfully attempted to obtain more than $515,000 from the Small Business Administration’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan program using fictitious companies, prosecutors said he and Williams turned their attention to the US Treasury Department’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program, administered locally by King County.

In 2021 and 2022, Cunningham and Williams posed as landlords seeking rental assistance for purported tenants who they claimed were facing eviction after falling behind on rent because of the pandemic.

The tenants did not exist.

Cunningham did not own the properties or represent their owners, prosecutors said, but nevertheless submitted eight applications under various names while posing as a landlord.

“They created fake tenants, they created fake documents, they created fake eviction notices for their fake tenants,” Assistant US Attorney Lauren Watts Staniar told jurors during closing arguments. “And every dollar that went to a fraudster was a dollar that could not go to a family in need.”

King County eventually detected the fraud and clawed back $100,000 that had already been paid to Cunningham. Rather than stop, prosecutors said Cunningham submitted additional fraudulent documents in an attempt to convince the county to return the money.

“Jahri Cunningham was trying to steal every last cent of the (rental assistance) program,” Assistant US Attorney Cindy Chang said during closing rebuttal.

Prosecutors presented text messages during Cunningham’s four-day trial showing him and Williams discussing the scheme as it unfolded. After learning that law enforcement was investigating, Cunningham allegedly urged his sister to obtain a new phone and telephone number in an attempt to conceal messages that ultimately became evidence against him. The case was investigated by the FBI with assistance from the Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General.

Cunningham was convicted of two wire fraud counts stemming from the fraudulent rental assistance applications and another wire fraud count related to the SBA applications. He was also convicted of money laundering for tens of thousands of dollars in kickbacks paid to Williams for her role in the scheme.

Williams, identified by prosecutors as the scheme’s mastermind, was sentenced in March 2024 to five years in federal prison.

US District Judge John H. Chun ordered Cunningham remanded into custody following the verdict. His sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 2. Wire fraud and money laundering are each punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

Cunningham was previously convicted in the Western District of Washington in 2016 and sentenced to 75 months in federal prison for conspiracy to distribute controlled substances.