Two St. Paul-area women indicted in $5.4 million fraud involving pandemic benefits

Josh Verges, Pioneer Press
·3 min read

Two women from the St. Paul area submitted hundreds of false applications to coronavirus pandemic relief programs, causing the U.S. government and multiple states to pay out at least $5.4 million in fraudulent benefits, according to two indictments filed in U.S. District Court in Minnesota.

Tequisha Solomon, 39, was charged with six felony counts of wire fraud and 35-year-old Takara Hughes with five counts.

According to the indictments filed last week:

Solomon, who lived in Woodbury and South St. Paul before moving to Las Vegas, accepted fees of around $2,000 each to file at least 200 fake benefits applications, including one on behalf of a Minnesota prison inmate.

Between June 2020 and January 2022, she caused at least $4.2 million in fraudulent benefits to be paid out through the Paycheck Protection Program, Economic Injury Disaster Loans and state and federal unemployment programs.

Besides helping others with their frauds, Solomon directly obtained her own benefits: $18,000 in unemployment payments from Minnesota, $25,000 from Illinois and $37,000 from California, plus $41,666 in federal PPP loans.

The government says she used the proceeds to buy a Range Rover in August 2020, traded up for a Land Rover Velar in April 2021 and traded up again for a Jaguar sedan in January 2022.

Solomon’s attorney, Will Walker, said “she maintains her innocence and we’re hoping to have a very vigorous trial.”

“There can be very, very reasonable and completely benign explanations … and that’s what we’re working through right now,” he added.

HUGHES

Hughes, who has lived in Maplewood, Inver Grove Heights and St. Paul, is charged in an identical scheme.

Between June 2020 and July 2021, she’s accused of fraudulently applying for $1.9 million in pandemic-related funds and causing the federal government and states to pay out at least $1.2 million.

Much of that was on behalf of others. She typically charged people $3,000, filing at least 40 fake claims for unemployment benefits and at least 30 for small business loans, the indictment alleges.

She also obtained about $5,500 in unemployment payments for herself from Minnesota and $46,000 from California, also applying in Washington and Louisiana. Her applications for EIDL loans were denied, but she received $20,832 in PPP loans.

Hughes’ attorney did not immediately return a phone call Wednesday.

CRIMINAL HISTORIES

Hughes has a record of financial trouble, including a bankruptcy filing and numerous small claims, but no major crimes.

Solomon has felony convictions in seven separate criminal cases, court records show. They involved writing bad checks, stealing a rental car, fleeing police and receiving stolen property. Her most recent Minnesota conviction was for second-degree assault for firing a gun at a woman in October 2020 while they argued about ex-boyfriends outside Willard’s Liquor in St. Paul.

She was sentenced in that case in February to 120 days of home monitoring with a suspended 51-month prison term.

The women are due in court on the wire fraud charges July 15.

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