Influencer Busted For Using Covid Relief Money On Bentley & Cosmetic Procedures Has Been Sentenced

An influencer and Miami real estate broker will be doing prison time for fraudulently obtaining more than $381,000 in COVID-19 relief money.

Daniela Rendon received a $371,290 PPP loan and a $10,000 EIDL loan after falsifying documents related to her real estate business. During her sentencing hearing Thursday, she said that it seemed like "everybody was doing it."

Well, if everyone is doing it then why not? While there was a lot of fraud committed to obtain the relief funds, obviously everyone wasn't doing it.

Even less were spending their fraudulently obtained money the way this 31-year-old influencer did. She is said to have used the money to lease a Bentley and a luxury apartment. She also paid for cosmetic procedures and to have her designer shoe collection refinished.

What's the punishment for such a crime? In Rendon's case it's three and a half years behind bars. She was facing much more time than that.

In February, she was indicted on multiple counts of wire fraud, two counts of money laundering and a count of aggravated identity theft. Just one of the wire fraud charges could have put her behind bars for as many as 20 years.

In April, Rendon pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud. After doing so, prosecutors dropped the other charges.

When She Gets Out She'll Still Have Prime Influencer Years Ahead Of Her

The influencer's defense team was hoping to avoid time behind bars with five years of probation. That did not happen. She received the three and a half years and was ordered to pay back $198,990 to the U.S. government.

Rendon had to surrender to prison authorities immediately after the hearing ended.

All things considered, and the amount of prison time she could have received, it isn't all that bad for the influencer. She'll still be in her mid-30s when she gets out, assuming she does all of the time, and have many prime years of influencing in front of her.

Imagine the subscription numbers she could do should she choose to go down that path. To sum it up, it's not the end of the world for Daniela Rendon. The internet is a forgiving place when it comes to these kinds of crimes.