An Ascension Parish woman accused in Louisiana of defrauding the federal government of more than $500,000 faces new charges in Georgia, where she has been accused in a racketeering conspiracy, authorities said.
The Troup County, Ga., grand jury charged Tynea Gray and another Louisiana woman this month after their arrest on identity fraud counts in early April following a traffic stop on the interstate, county deputies said.
In mid-June, a Baton Rouge federal grand jury accused Gray in secret of taking the U.S. pandemic unemployment assistance program and a related small business loan program for about $571,000 combined. That indictment was unsealed the next month.
After the April 7 traffic stop on Interstate 85 near LaGrange, Georgia, Troup County Sheriff’s Capt. Nathan Taylor found a trove of items in their vehicle suggesting Gray and other other woman, Deavian Andrews, were involved in identity theft and printing bogus checks, deputies said in a statement.
The captain also found COVID vaccination cards stolen from a doctor’s office, false vehicle identification number stickers, and debit and credit cards belonging to other people, deputies said.
Investigator James Robson found that the two had about $22,400 in forged money orders and $45,949 in suspected forged checks, Troup County deputies said.
