Three plead guilty in estimated $3.5M PPP fraud probed by Amtrak watchdog

Three Riverside County residents have pleaded guilty in a PPP loan fraud scheme that federal prosecutors estimate caused about $3.5 million in losses, a case investigated by Amtrak’s inspector general.

Vanessa M. Williams, 37, of Corona, and Denise Mata, 36, of Moreno Valley, each admitted one count of wire fraud on September 22. Daryl D. Knighten Jr., 34, of Perris, pleaded guilty to the same single charge two days later, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said. U.S. District Judge Kenly Kiya Kato has set sentencing for January 14, 2027, when each of the three faces up to 20 years in federal prison.

How the loan applications were faked

Under their plea agreements, the three admitted that between March and August 2021 they filed bogus Paycheck Protection Program applications for themselves, their relatives and associates, and for people they had recruited. Congress set up the program in 2020 to support businesses hit by the economic effects of COVID-19.

Each application described the borrower as self-employed when that was untrue, carried forged tax forms and falsely promised that the money would go on permitted business costs. Lenders approved loans for the defendants and for more than 100 other participants. Within days of being paid, those participants handed kickbacks to the defendants, and the money was spent on personal needs rather than on costs the program allowed. The group later sent false paperwork to the Small Business Administration and to lenders to have the loans forgiven.

Admitted losses against the $3.5 million estimate

The plea agreements put individual figures on the damage. Knighten admitted to losses of at least $145,550, Williams to at least $187,497 and Mata to at least $201,642, or at least $534,689 combined. The figure of roughly $3.5 million is the prosecutors’ estimate of the loss from the scheme as a whole.

Mikhail G. Hoalim, 35, of Moreno Valley, the fourth person charged in the case, has entered not-guilty pleas to nine wire fraud counts. His trial is set for November 9.

From the 2024 indictment to the plea deals

The case goes back to a 23-count federal grand jury indictment made public in October 2024. Williams and Mata were arrested on October 24, 2024, and Knighten and Hoalim surrendered the following day. At that stage Williams faced nine wire fraud counts, Mata ten plus one count of aggravated identity theft, and Knighten seven. The 2026 announcements do not say how the remaining counts will be resolved.

Amtrak inspector general’s pandemic fraud work

Amtrak’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) ran the investigation as part of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee Task Force, working with Homeland Security Investigations. The committee’s Pandemic Analytics Center of Excellence, which uses analytical and forensic tools to help inspectors general and law enforcement pursue relief fraud, also supported the case. The announcements do not identify the three defendants as Amtrak employees.

In its semiannual report for October 2025 to March 2026, the OIG lists pandemic relief fraud among its investigative work, alongside procurement bribery, health care fraud and theft of passenger property, and notes several such cases involving current and former Amtrak employees. Over those six months its investigations produced 11 convictions, 20 indictments, 23 arrests and $5.6 million in recoveries, restitution, forfeitures and similar financial results.