A Silver Spring woman was sentenced to more than three years in federal prison for her role in a scheme that unlawfully acquired hundreds of thousands of dollars in COVID-19 unemployment and business assistance funds, the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland stated on Monday.
Elizabeth Maria Ceballos, 50, was sentenced to 40 months in prison with two years of supervised release after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
The judge also sentenced Ceballos to pay $638,889 in restitution.
The scheme ran between at least May 2020 and September 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prosecutors claimed Ceballos accepted money in exchange for generating bogus tax documents that were used to support fraudulent unemployment insurance claims filed with the Maryland Department of Labor.
Authorities stated the fraud involved unemployment payments provided under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which increased jobless assistance during the outbreak.
As part of her guilty plea, Ceballos admitted to assisting co-conspirator Vanessa Valdez, 42, of Burtonsville, in committing fraud involving Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) funds established under the CARES Act to assist businesses affected by the pandemic.
According to federal authorities, Valdez pled guilty in December 2025 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
She is awaiting sentencing.
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