NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — Former congressional candidate Shaun Brown has been convicted of using a summer food service program to defraud the federal government of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Brown, 59, was found guilty Tuesday by a federal jury on charges of conspiracy, two counts of wire fraud and one count of theft of government funds.
According to prosecutors, over the summer of 2012, Brown inflated the number of meals her non-profit JOBS Community Development Corporation served to low-income children, and “orchestrated a massive scheme” to falsify hundreds of documents to support the claims.
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Prosecutors say Brown submitted four fraudulent claims for reimbursement from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s summer food service program (SFSP), and ended up receiving more than $800,000 in federal funds.
Not only did she submit false records, prosecutors say, but her scheme led to major amounts of food waste, which her employees disposed of in large mounds behind Newport News buildings and a pig farm in southern Virginia.
Brown, who ran in the 2016 2nd Virginia Congressional District race against Scott Taylor, has also been in the news recently after Taylor staffers were accused of forging signatures to get her name on the 2nd District ballot this November. Her name has since been taken off the ballot.
Brown faces up to 20 years in prison.