A disbarred attorney whose business secured multimillion-dollar infrastructure contracts with DeKalb County was sentenced Wednesday to 18 months in prison for her part in a $14.9 million COVID relief fraud scheme.
Chandra Norton, 56, pleaded guilty in November 2020 to a single count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. In the early months of the coronavirus pandemic, Norton and her then-friend Shelitha Robertson fraudulently obtained almost $15 million in Paycheck Protection Program funds that they spent in part on luxury cars and jewelry.
Norton owned up to the crime shortly after banks froze her accounts and the federal government began investigating. She was critical to the government’s prosecution of Robertson, who was also a lawyer and business owner once employed by the city of Atlanta as a police officer and attorney. Norton recorded conversations with Robertson and testified against her at trial.
U.S. District Judge Steven D. Grimberg, who handled both Norton and Robertson’s cases, gave Norton credit for cooperating with prosecutors and securing Robertson’s conviction. He said Norton appeared genuinely remorseful, though the fact that she didn’t need the money in the first place “makes everyone sort of scratch their head.”
“You were a lawyer. A successful businesswoman. You were lacking in nothing,” Grimberg told Norton as he sentenced her. “You engaged in a series of very bad, poor decision-making.”
About $3 million was retrieved from Norton’s bank accounts, her attorney, Randy Chartash, said. Robertson, who was sentenced to seven years in prison, paid back her roughly $7 million share of the PPP funds with interest. Together, Norton and Robertson are responsible for paying the remaining $4.4 million to the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Norton’s health problems, which include breast cancer and “long COVID,” mean that she doesn’t have to start her prison sentence until February at the earliest. She was also sentenced to three years of supervised release.
Chartash said he’d hoped that Norton could avoid incarceration, given the medical treatment she needs. Details about her health were excluded from the public record.
Norton told Grimberg that she’s deeply remorseful and takes full responsibility for her actions. She said she was experiencing personal turmoil at the time of the fraud and let her guard down with Robertson during a weak moment. She said she’d lost business, finances, friends and her reputation in the fallout.
“Plain and simple, I was wrong,” she said. “I lost my way.”
Prosecutor Ariel Glasner said COVID fraudsters like Norton and Robertson took limited funds away from struggling businesses that desperately needed the help and “shake the country’s confidence in emergency relief programs as a whole.” He said Norton knew better and only accepted responsibility “once she knew that the gig was up.”
“She didn’t need to do it,” he said. “It was motivated by greed. It was not a mistake. It was intentional.”
At least 11 fraudulent PPP loan applications were submitted by Norton and Robertson on behalf of businesses they owned. Norton used her share of the money to buy a luxury Land Rover SUV worth more than $170,000 that she has now forfeited to the government. She also deposited loan funds into a personal brokerage account.
Members of Norton’s family, including her husband, son and siblings, attended her sentencing, as did some of her friends. Her son, Cameron Norton, told the judge that she was “overly kind and loving” and “a superwoman.”
The judge said it was a particularly tough case, in part due to the seriousness of PPP fraud and the need to deter others. Norton’s substantial cooperation with prosecutors differentiated her from Robertson, who pleaded not guilty, Grimberg said.
Robertson is appealing her sentence.
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