On Wednesday, Basketball Wives star Brittish Williams pleaded guilty to 15 felonies, including pandemic fraud charges of up to $446,000 in stolen funds.
According to KMOV St. Louis, Williams, 33, entered a guilty plea to five counts of misuse of a Social Security number, four counts of bank fraud, three counts of lying to the IRS, and three counts of wire fraud.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri said that Williams acknowledged understating her income on recent tax returns and falsely designating a niece and nephews as dependents. She allegedly avoided paying more than $29,000 in taxes between 2017 and 2019.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, she opened accounts with banks and credit card companies using other people’s Social Security numbers. She also took money and deposited checks totaling more than $23,000 from other people’s accounts using those numbers.
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In addition to bank fraud, Williams entered a guilty plea that included three pandemic scams as well as insurance fraud.
She submitted four applications for the Paycheck Protection Program, nine applications for disaster loans that helped businesses during the pandemic, and one application for a rent relief program in California.
According to her plea, she received $144,000 in government loans for personal use.
On top of that, she fraudulently claimed to be a California resident with a total household income of less than $50,000 and reduced work hours to receive $27,800 in rent reduction.
However, the plea states that the pandemic had no impact on her job schedule. And that the network that produces “Basketball Wives” paid her rent.
Furthermore, she sent an insurance provider more than $139,000 in fake medical bills.
Since being charged in October 2021, Williams has not submitted yearly tax returns. On an employment form, she declared herself exempt from paying taxes, which prevented taxes from being deducted from her $90,000 salary.
Williams is expected to be sentenced later this year in August.
She faces a maximum jail sentence of 30 years for bank fraud, 20 years for wire fraud, and five years for each of the five claims of misuse of a Social Security number. Additionally, she might be fined up to $3.25 million.
