HARRISBURG — This is an official press release from the U.S. Department of Justice (USAO - Pennsylvania, Middle), published as received.

HARRISBURG – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Linda Grubb, age 74, of Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, was sentenced on January 24, 2022, to 12 months’ and one day imprisonment by United States District Court Judge Sylvia Rambo for wire fraud.

According to United States Attorney John C. Gurganus, Grubb pleaded guilty to participating in a scheme where the scheme participants manipulated a variety of pandemic relief programs to fraudulently obtain money. Specifically, international fraudsters made applications for pandemic related small business loans and pandemic unemployment assistance, sometimes using stolen identify information. The pandemic loan and unemployment payments were deposited into Grubb’s bank account in Huntingdon County.  Grubb allowed her bank account to be used in that manner and then assisted the fraudsters by wiring the funds to foreign bank accounts they identified.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael A. Consiglio prosecuted the case.

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.

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