St. Louis County Woman Sentenced for $100,000 Pandemic Loan Fraud

ST. LOUIS -U.S. District Judge Rodney W. Sippel on Thursday ordered a woman who fraudulently obtained five pandemic relief loans to repay $113,223 to the U.S. Small Business Administration and placed her on probation for five years.

Camille N. Foster, now 32, of St. Louis County, Missouri, obtained five Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans between May 2020 and November 2021 by submitting fraudulent loan applications on behalf of three businesses: Humble Hearts Home Healthcare LLC, Embellished Jewels LLC and Muse Me Boutique LLC. On the applications, she knowingly misrepresented the payroll and annual income of the businesses, which were not in operation at the time. She also submitted fraudulent tax forms with the applications. In a loan application for Muse Me Boutique, Foster used someone else's name and Social Security number on the application, and signed that person's name on the application without the person's knowledge.

PPP loans were intended to help struggling small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic, but Foster did not use the money for that purpose. She spent it on retail purchases, dining, cosmetic surgery, bill payments, travel, taxes and payments to others. She then submitted fraudulent applications for PPP loan forgiveness for many of the loans she received, claiming that she had spent most or all the money on payroll costs.

Foster, also known as Foster-Nunley, pleaded guilty in April to two counts of wire fraud.

The FBI investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Clow prosecuted the case.

Anyone with information about pandemic fraud should call the Department of Justice's National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or report via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.