RICHMOND, Va. — Former General Assembly candidate Sheila Bynum-Coleman has been indicted by a federal grand jury and accused of fraudulently obtaining at least $225,000 from the federal government.
Federal court records show that Bynum-Coleman and her husband, Rashad Coleman, are facing nearly a dozen felony charges, including conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud and making false statements on loan applications.
They were indicted by a grand jury last month.
Prosecutors accuse them both of fraudulently obtaining COVID-related government funds by filing false claims and submitting false statements to the Virginia Employment Commission to receive unemployment insurance benefits.
Prosecutors said they did this by “providing false and fabricated income, sales, gross receipts, and profit figures for the businesses.”
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The government said some of the crimes involved the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).
According to the indictment, “at least nine fraudulent PPP loan applications submitted by the defendants were approved and funded, resulting in the disbursal of at least 225,000 dollars in proceeds by the financial institutions.”
Court records allege the couple utilized the fraudulently obtained PPP funds to pay down their home loan and credit card loans, buy luxury clothing, and transferred the funds to an account for Bynum-Coleman’s political campaign for the House of Delegates.
Bynum-Coleman ran for the House of Delegates in 2019 but lost to Republican Speaker Kirk Cox in the 66th District in Colonial Heights and Chesterfield.
A year later, she was arrested in a “revenge porn” case in Henrico, and ultimately took a plea deal that called for community service.
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