{"id":53792,"date":"2025-04-24T19:50:50","date_gmt":"2025-04-24T23:50:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/?p=53792"},"modified":"2025-04-24T19:50:50","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T23:50:50","slug":"florida-man-who-ran-for-mayor-pleads-guilty-to-covid-relief-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/florida-man-who-ran-for-mayor-pleads-guilty-to-covid-relief-fraud\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida man who ran for mayor pleads guilty to COVID relief fraud"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A South Florida man who once ran for mayor has pleaded guilty to wire fraud after fraudulently obtaining more than $120,000 in COVID-19 relief funds through the federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), according to federal prosecutors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-sdfl\/pr\/miramar-mayoral-candidate-pleads-guilty-covid-19-relief-fraud\">statement<\/a> on Thursday by the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Southern District of Florida, 41-year-old Rudy Theophin of Miramar submitted a PPP loan application in June 2020 claiming his company, Theophin Consulting LLC, needed financial relief due to the pandemic. Prosecutors say Theophin\u2019s application included false information about the company\u2019s payroll and number of employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once the $123,675 loan was approved, Theophin transferred some of the funds to another individual, moved a portion to his own investment account, and used the remaining money toward the purchase of a condominium, according to court records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2023, Theophin ran for mayor of Miramar, in southern Broward County, against incumbent Wayne Messam, a Democrat, who ultimately won reelection and is now serving his third term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Theophin is scheduled to be sentenced on July 15 in Fort Lauderdale. He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A South Florida man who once ran for mayor has pleaded guilty to wire fraud after fraudulently obtaining more than $120,000 in COVID-19 relief funds through the federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), according to federal prosecutors. According to a statement on Thursday by the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Southern District of Florida, 41-year-old Rudy [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":53793,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,2],"tags":[93,3393,3392,151],"class_list":["post-53792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legal","category-usnews","tag-florida","tag-fraud","tag-miramar-florida","tag-united-states"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Florida man who ran for mayor pleads guilty to COVID relief fraud - BNO News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/florida-man-who-ran-for-mayor-pleads-guilty-to-covid-relief-fraud\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Florida man who ran for mayor pleads guilty to COVID relief fraud - BNO News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A South Florida man who once ran for mayor has pleaded guilty to wire fraud after fraudulently obtaining more than $120,000 in COVID-19 relief funds through the federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), according to federal prosecutors. According to a statement on Thursday by the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Southern District of Florida, 41-year-old Rudy [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/florida-man-who-ran-for-mayor-pleads-guilty-to-covid-relief-fraud\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BNO News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bnonews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-04-24T23:50:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/20250424Miramar2023Candidate.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Carlos Robles\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@bnonews\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bnonews\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Carlos Robles\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/florida-man-who-ran-for-mayor-pleads-guilty-to-covid-relief-fraud\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/florida-man-who-ran-for-mayor-pleads-guilty-to-covid-relief-fraud\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Carlos Robles\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0a2ca734b9c5688c0e2d40fe6f33add1\"},\"headline\":\"Florida man who ran for mayor pleads guilty to COVID relief fraud\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-24T23:50:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-04-24T23:50:50+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/florida-man-who-ran-for-mayor-pleads-guilty-to-covid-relief-fraud\/\"},\"wordCount\":194,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/florida-man-who-ran-for-mayor-pleads-guilty-to-covid-relief-fraud\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/20250424Miramar2023Candidate.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Florida\",\"Fraud\",\"Miramar (Florida)\",\"United States\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Legal\",\"US News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/florida-man-who-ran-for-mayor-pleads-guilty-to-covid-relief-fraud\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/bnonews.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/florida-man-who-ran-for-mayor-pleads-guilty-to-covid-relief-fraud\/\",\"name\":\"Florida man who ran for mayor pleads guilty to COVID relief fraud - 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