Woman got $267K in pandemic rental aid — and paid for vacations, real estate, feds say

Kaitlyn Alanis
·2 min read
21

A Missouri woman submitted 52 fraudulent applications seeking rent assistance for her and her “tenants” during the COVID-19 pandemic — and received $267,239 through her scam, according to federal authorities.

Now Semaj Portis, of St. Louis County, has been sentenced to one year and a day in prison. She’s also ordered to repay the money she fraudulently received, according to an Oct. 7 news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri.

Authorities said the scheme began in January 2021, when Portis registered a company called Forever Riding as a nonprofit organization in Missouri. She listed herself as the incorporator and registered agent, according to court records.

Portis then submitted 52 applications seeking rent help to the Missouri Housing Development Commission, federal authorities said. She listed herself or Forever Riding as the landlord on those forms, and she submitted fake rental leases.

“Not a single one of those applications were legitimate,” prosecutors said. “Indeed, (Portis) did not own a single property listed in those applications, nor was she the landlord for a single tenant listed in those applications.”

But her emergency rental assistance applications were accepted, and authorities said she received grant money meant to help “landlords and their financially struggling tenants during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The defense attorney representing Portis, 43, did not respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News on Oct. 10.

“For too many Missourians, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in an unprecedented time of financial hardship, turmoil, and suffering,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Derek Wiseman said in a sentencing memorandum. “But for Defendant Semaj Portis, it constituted a lucrative opportunity to line her pockets with relief payments earmarked for struggling Missourians.”

Portis used the fraudulently obtained money to pay for vacations and real estate, authorities said.

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