South Florida
Daughter of Broward politician charged with defrauding federal COVID-19 relief program
Political consultant Damara Holness, daughter of a Broward County commissioner who is now running for Congress, has been charged with fleecing $300,000 from a federal government program that is meant to help small businesses struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Holness, the 28-year-old daughter of Broward commissioner Dale Holness who is seeking the late U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings’ vacant seat, was charged Tuesday with one count of conspiring to commit wire fraud. She’s accused of lying about the financial needs of her Plantation consulting business to qualify for a federal Paycheck Protection Program loan.
Damara Holness had her first appearance in Fort Lauderdale federal court Wednesday and was granted a personal surety bond of $100,000.
After this story was published, Holness’ defense attorney, Sue-Ann Robinson, issued a short statement Thursday morning saying her client is a single mother who “despite having a high profile parent has had to chart her own path personally and professionally.”
“Like everyone else, Ms. Holness is entitled to the presumption of innocence,” Robinson said. “Despite a full investigation by the feds confirming no involvement by her father or his campaign, there has been an unexplained rush to complete and publicize this indictment. It is unfortunate that the timing of these allegations against my client has seemingly been synced to allow it to be folded into her father’s campaign for federal office.“
Her father, Dale Holness, who served as Broward’s mayor last year and is running against 10 others in the Democratic special primary election in November for Hastings’ seat, said in a text message that he and his daughter “have been estranged for many years.”
“She has made it clear to me on multiple occasions that she is an adult and as such has conducted her own affairs,” Holness wrote in the text message to the Miami Herald. “I have no details as to how she conducted her business or what she did with her business.”
“If she has done wrong, I hope she learns from this and uses it as a lesson as to how to better conduct herself in life,” he wrote.
Yet Florida public records show Damara Holness ran her political consulting business in the same office as her father’s real estate business, All Broward Realty, at 4325 West Sunrise Boulevard in Plantation. Asked about the same address for both businesses, Dale Holness told the Herald: “She never conducted any business in my office nor did she have keys to my office.”
Damara Holness was among thousands of small business owners in Florida and nationwide who turned to the federal government for a helping hand during the coronavirus pandemic, but authorities say she cheated the system by lying about her company’s financial profile and payroll.
The COVID-19 relief program, approved by Congress last year when the coronavirus pandemic swept the nation, was designed to help struggling businesses apply for loans that are guaranteed by the Small Business Administration and ultimately forgiven. Since its inception under the CARES Act, the $650 billion program has been credited with helping small businesses pay employee wages and cover other overhead costs, but it has also generated dozens of cases of fraud in South Florida, one of the hot spots in the country.
Last year, when Damara Holness was serving as president of the Broward County Democratic Black Caucus, she applied for a $300,000 loan for her company, Holness Consulting Inc., according to a criminal information filed in Fort Lauderdale Federal Court.
To justify her company’s request, Holness claimed in the loan application that her company employed 18 people and spent an average of $120,000 a month on payroll, the information says. In fact, federal prosecutor Jeffrey Kaplan alleges, she had zero employees and no payroll expenses. She’s accused of using fraudulent payroll tax forms to support her loan request.
A bank in Georgia, which reviewed her company’s application approved the loan and wired the $300,000 to the political consultant’s account in South Florida.
Once the money hit the bank account in July 2020, Holness spent the next few months creating a paper trail to make it appear as if Holness Consulting had employees and was spending PPP money on legitimate, approved expenses, Kaplan alleges in the information.
Holness then issued checks from her company’s bank account made out to other people who agreed to endorse and return them to the political consultant, the information says. She cashed the checks, paid a few hundred dollars to each of the check endorsers and then kept the rest of the cash for herself — about $1,000 per check, FBI agents uncovered during their investigation.
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