A federal court in Harrisburg has sentenced four individuals for their involvement in a scheme to defraud COVID-19 relief programs, resulting in over $11.5 million in losses. On February 10, 2026, United States District Judge Jennifer P. Wilson sentenced Joshua White, 44, formerly of Yoe, Pennsylvania, to eight years in prison for bank fraud. In addition to his prison term, White was ordered to pay more than $2.3 million in restitution and will serve five years of supervised release after completing his sentence.
Joshua White is the last of four defendants sentenced for their roles in a conspiracy targeting the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program—federal initiatives designed to support businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. His father, Creed White, 67, formerly of Freeland, Maryland, received a ten-year sentence for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering. Joseph Bailey, 54, previously from York, Pennsylvania and an employee of Creed White’s company Aluminum Alloys Manufacturing, was sentenced to just under four years in prison for conspiracy. Another employee, Kester Murray of Emigsville, Pennsylvania, received two years’ probation.
All four defendants pleaded guilty and were ordered by Judge Wilson to pay millions in restitution.
Federal investigators determined that Creed White orchestrated the scheme through Aluminum Alloys Manufacturing based in Yoe. The business received disaster loans soon after the pandemic began. From spring 2020 through fall 2022, Creed White submitted about 120 fraudulent PPP and EIDL applications using dormant businesses he owned or controlled—entities with no actual operations or employees. Approximately forty applications were approved; proceeds totaling more than $11.5 million were deposited into accounts managed by Creed White before being moved elsewhere or used for unauthorized personal expenses.
To carry out the fraud scheme:
– Creed White filed loan applications under names of various individuals he falsely claimed as business owners.
– Joshua White gathered personally identifying information from these third parties.
– Joseph Bailey and Kester Murray created fake business documents supporting loan applications.
– Separately, Joshua White submitted a fraudulent PPP application on behalf of his own dormant company and spent $175,000 on unauthorized purchases including travel to Las Vegas.
“These individuals deliberately and repeatedly defrauded the PPP and the EIDL programs, which were designed to help small business owners during the COVID pandemic,” said IRS-CI Philadelphia Field Office Special Agent in Charge Yury Kruty. “These sentencings should be a deterrent to other would-be criminals knowing that Special Agents from IRS-CI and our law enforcement partners are fully committed to bringing offenders like this to justice.”
Amaleka McCall-Brathwaite from the U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General commented: “When individuals manipulate pandemic relief programs for personal gain they undermine public trust and divert critical resources from legitimate small businesses. These sentencings underscore that fraud against federal relief programs will be aggressively investigated and prosecuted. SBA OIG will continue to protect taxpayer dollars and uphold the integrity of SBA programs.”
“Treasury OIG welcomes the opportunity to contribute our expertise in combating fraud in these important programs,” added Department of Treasury Deputy Inspector General Loren Sciurba. “We remain committed to protecting the taxpayer through detection investigation and prosecution of such frauds with other members of the law enforcement community.”
The case was investigated by agents from Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigations (IRS-CI), Small Business Administration-Office of Inspector General (SBA-OIG), and United States Treasury-Office of Inspector General (Treasury-OIG). Assistant United States Attorney Christian T. Haugsby led prosecution efforts.
