RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- A former candidate for the Virginia House of Delegates pleaded guilty Thursday for fraudulently getting over $220,000 in COVID-19 relief loans. Fifty-four-year-old Sheila C. Bynum-Coleman filed for and received at least nine fraudulent COVID-19 Paycheck Protection Program ( PPP) loan applications totaling over $225,000, per the Department of Justice (DOJ). The indictment states that the fraudulent activity was done on behalf of eight different businesses she and her husband, 48-year-old Rashad H. Coleman, reportedly owned and operated. Prosecutors said that Bynum-Coleman made numerous false certifications and allegedly claimed they did not own or operate more than one business. Bynum-Coleman and Coleman inflated and manufactured annual sales and revenue figures to inflate PPP funds that the business could qualify for. With each PPP application, Bynum-Coleman fabricated Internal Revenue Service (IRS) income tax return documents to "falsely support the inflated business sales and revenue figures," the DOJ said. The department added that Bynum-Coleman and Coleman did not file any income tax returns in 2020, after they pleaded guilty to failing to file income tax returns back in 2020. According to the DOJ, Bynum-Coleman represented financial institutions in PPP applications, as she and her husband were operating multiple businesses in 2020. Bynum-Coleman represented the Virginia Employment Commission (VEC), though the department notes that she was unemployed from March 15, 2020, through Feb. 13, 2021, to obtain pandemic unemployment benefits. Per the DOJ, Bynum-Coleman falsely certified to the VEC that she had not applied for or received PPP funds for the same time period she was seeking those COVID-19 unemployment benefits. Bynum-Coleman also falsified statements to the U.S. Small Business Administration to defraud the Emergency Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) Program, a COVID-19 relief program, the department said. Bynum-Coleman and Coleman are accused of spending the loan funding not on personal expenses, luxury items and to fund Bynum-Coleman’s campaign, according to the DOJ. On May 29, 2020, Bynum-Coleman transferred $10,000 of fraudulently obtained PPP funds into a bank account in the name of “Friends of Sheila for Delegate,” an account which the DOJ said is for Bynum-Coleman’s political campaign for the Virginia House of Delegates, after receiving $62,500 in PPP loans. As of April 2025, these allegations amount to one count of conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud, nine counts of false statements on loan applications and one count of engaging in monetary transactions in criminally derived property. ...read more read less