(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The Justice Department has asked a federal judge to sentence a former DC Homeland Security and U.S. Department of Agriculture official to 27 months in prison for perpetrating an $880,000 fraud on the COVID-era Paycheck Protection Program.
According to the DOJ, the defendant, Wendy Nicole Villatoro, 40, formerly of Washington, D.C., submitted eight PPP loan applications with various financial institutions, and 15 Economic Injury Disaster loans with the Small Business Administration—all of which contained materially false statements.
The DOJ said Villatoro submitted loans on behalf of fake businesses and inflated the number of employees, the average monthly payroll, the gross yearly revenue, or the cost of goods sold.
UPDATE: The DOJ seeks 27 months prison time for the thieving ex-Homeland Security official.
“The defendant was a D.C. public official who was appointed by the D.C. Mayor in 2021 to be a commissioner on the Homeland Security Commission … Yet, somewhere along the way, she… https://t.co/9z5HgqxOOI pic.twitter.com/Sb8Pit3HuB
— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) February 24, 2025
“While most of Villatoro’s loan applications were denied, she successfully secured over $844,000 in PPP and EID funds. Villatoro used the funds to pay off her student loans, pay off the car loan on a BMW SUV, and buy luxury items,” the DOJ said.
Villatoro pled guilty in November. She faced a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.
While she has accepted responsibility for her crimes, the DOJ said she deserves to go to jail due to her previous government jobs.
According to the DOJ, she worked for the Department of Agriculture at the time she committed the massive fraud.
Before that, she was a D.C. Homeland Security Commissioner. According to a LinkedIn account with her name, she was a “senior expert publicly confirmed as Commissioner by the District of Columbia City Council to provide recommendations to the Mayor on improvements in security preparedness.”
She also said she’s a Doctoral Candidate in cybersecurity.
“I am a disruptor with expertise in sustainability, strategy, program management, logistics, homeland security, disaster management, and technology,” her LinkedIn bio states.
The DOJ said those factors count as strikes against her.
“What makes this crime particularly egregious is not only the nature of the offense, but the position the defendant held within society,” prosecutors said in a sentencing memo filed last Thursday.
“The defendant was a D.C. public official who was appointed by the D.C. Mayor in 2021 to be a commissioner on the Homeland Security Commission. This Commission was established in 2006 to evaluate the city’s security and to make it safer for its citizens,” they said.
“Given that the defendant worked in the public sector for over 10 years, she must, at some point, believed in the government’s fundamental mission—to serve the public. Yet, somewhere along the way, she decided to defraud her employer out of nearly $850,000, despite making $117,962 annually.”
Villatoro is scheduled to be sentenced on Friday. She has not yet filed her own sentencing memorandum.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
