Feds: Los Angeles Woman Indicted Over $18 Million in COVID Relief Loans
Los Angeles, November 4, 2026. A federal grand jury in the Central District of California has indicted Marisela Nuno, 53, of Los Angeles, on three counts of wire fraud and one count of money laundering. The Justice Department alleges she sought about $18 million in pandemic relief by filing applications that misstated what her businesses employed, paid and earned.
Nuno is presumed innocent, and the case is at the indictment stage. The release says she “sought” the money; it does not say how much was paid out. This page sticks to what the Justice Department has put on the record, then sets it against the national numbers.
- $15.7Msought through PPPPaycheck Protection Program applications, per the DOJ release.
- $2.6Msought through EIDLEconomic Injury Disaster Loan applications, per the DOJ release.
- $200B+likely fraudulent nationallySBA inspector general's June 2023 estimate across EIDL and PPP; SBA itself disputed the figure.
Per the DOJ, Nuno submitted loan applications for businesses and entities she allegedly owned, to two CARES Act programs. Those applications allegedly misstated employee counts, average monthly payroll, gross revenue and eligibility, and were supported by false tax documents. The release alleges she used the proceeds to buy private property, pay relatives and cover business startup costs.
The maximum penalty is 20 years on each wire fraud count and 10 years on the money laundering count. The case is being prosecuted by trial attorneys from the Fraud Division’s Public Trust and Financial Integrity Section and the Criminal Division’s White Collar and Corporate Enforcement Section, and was investigated by the FBI Los Angeles field office, IRS Criminal Investigation and the SBA Office of Inspector General.
The release does not say how much was approved or paid, which businesses are named, whether Nuno is in custody, or when she will be arraigned. It names no state or local official. We found no source that gives her party affiliation or political connections, so this page does not assign any. The DOJ’s own wording is that she sought about $18 million, not that she obtained it.
Nuno’s alleged $18 million is small against the program totals. In June 2023 the SBA’s own inspector general estimated that the agency had likely disbursed more than $200 billion in potentially fraudulent EIDL and PPP money, about 17 percent of roughly $1.2 trillion, with about $136 billion in EIDL and $64 billion in PPP, per the report and Fox Business. SBA disputed the estimate, putting likely fraud nearer $36 billion; the inspector general stood by its figure.
California carries a separate record on pandemic unemployment insurance, a different program. The California State Auditor found at least $10.4 billion in fraudulent claims at the Employment Development Department in 2021, and a later auditor report put estimated losses near $20 billion, per Courthouse News and ABC30. The department has blamed the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program. That is a separate program from the loans in this case.
A different Los Angeles-area ring also totaled about $18 million. Richard Ayvazyan received 17 years, his wife Marietta Terabelian 6 years, and his sister-in-law Tamara Dadyan 10 years and 10 months; the three fled to Montenegro before sentencing and were extradited, per Fox News/AP and NBC News. Per NBC News, that scheme used the identities of dead or elderly people and foreign exchange students. It is a separate case with convictions; Nuno’s is an unproven indictment.
Documented: the grand jury indictment, the four counts, the two programs and the amounts sought, per the DOJ.
Alleged, not proven: false payroll, revenue and tax documents, and use of proceeds for property and relatives.
Not documented: amounts actually paid, custody, an arraignment date, the defendant’s party, or any link to a state official.
Six years on, federal prosecutors are still indicting pandemic-loan fraud one applicant at a time, while the SBA’s own watchdog puts the likely total above $200 billion. This case is allegation, not conviction.
