Antoinette Rouse, the daughter of former Charlotte City Councilmember Tiawana Brown, pleaded guilty on June 15, 2026 in a COVID-19 fraud case that has connections to other members of the family. According to court documents that were obtained by the media earlier in June, Rouse confessed to fraudulently receiving over $51,000 in relief funds.
The documents also revealed that Rouse conspired with two other individuals — Tiawana Brown and Tijema Brown — to perpetrate the fraud. All three have entered guilty pleas. Rouse stated that the three of them submitted loan applications for fake businesses that didn’t exist, using forged tax documents. All three suspects are currently awaiting sentencing.
Tiawana, the girls’ mother, pleaded guilty to one charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in February 2026, while Tijema Brown pleaded guilty in April. Investigators stated that Brown and her daughters submitted a total of 15 loan applications between April 2020 and September 2021. While a number of these applications were rejected, prosecutors say Brown successfully obtained over $43,000 in COVID-19 relief funds.
According to a press release published by the Department of Justice, “It is alleged that the false documentation generally included fake and fraudulent tax forms, among other misrepresentations. It is further alleged that the defendants submitted false statements to obtain forgiveness of the PPP loans. In total, the defendants allegedly submitted at least 15 applications for EIDL or PPP funds and falsely obtained at least $124,165 in connection with their scheme to defraud.”
The indictment for the three individuals alleges that the funds were deposited into bank accounts that were controlled by the defendants. Rather than using the money received to help pay for qualifying expenses as stated in the loan applications, the three suspects used them for personal expenses, which included $15,000 for a birthday party for Tiawana Brown.
The defendants in the fraud case are now looking at a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for each offense. Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Warren with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte is the prosecutor working on the case. Ever since the enactment of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, the U.S. Attorney’s Office has prosecuted a total of 35 individuals.
Part of the Office’s enforcement actions when it comes to COVID fraud includes monetary judgments and the collection of assets to recoup some of the cash that was wrongfully stolen from American taxpayers. This may also include criminal and civil forfeiture, criminal restitution, and civil False Claims Act cases. Dozens of COVID fraud cases have resulted in obtaining almost $18 million in judgments and settlements and the collection of over $5.5 million in assets.
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This case and many others like it go hand-in-hand with the Trump administration’s recent push to eliminate fraud across the country. Vice President JD Vance has been put in charge of a task force to investigate huge amounts of fraud involving healthcare reimbursements from critical programs like Medicaid and Medicare that have been bilked for billions of dollars through fraudulent daycare and hospice centers.
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