A former Democratic nominee for the House of Delegates pleaded guilty on Thursday to making false statements to obtain money from multiple COVID-19 relief programs, with some of the money going into her campaign account.
According to court documents, Sheila C. Bynum-Coleman, 54, filed for and received at least nine fraudulent COVID-19 Paycheck Protection Program loans totaling over $225,000 on behalf of eight different businesses she and her husband, Rashad H. Coleman, 48, purportedly operated.
Per the court documents, Bynum-Coleman transferred $10,000 of fraudulently obtained PPP funds into a bank account in the name of “Friends of Sheila for Delegate,” an account for her political campaign for the Virginia House of Delegates in the 2021 election cycle.
Bynum-Coleman ended up not contesting for the Democratic Party nomination in her Central Virginia House district in that 2021 cycle.
She had run in what was then the 62nd District in 2015 and 2017, losing both times to Republican Riley Ingram, the second loss being relatively close – 829 votes, 3.5 percent.
In 2019, she challenged former House Speaker Kirk Cox in the 66th District, and lost another close race – Cox won by 4.6 points, and 1,296 raw votes.
Bynum-Coleman, in that 2019 race, spent more than $1.5 million on her campaign, according to data from the Virginia Public Access Project.
Among her big donors in that 2019 cycle:
- The Democratic Party of Virginia: $153,419
- Everytown for Gun Safety: $148,166
- House Democratic Caucus: $138,915
- Emily’s List: $132,000
- Virginia League of Conservation Voters: $87,708
I’ll note here my frustration for getting any kind of dollars for our Democratic candidates out here in our part of Virginia, and here the big hitters were backing somebody who ends up pleading guilty to fraud.
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Chris Graham
