South Florida man loses U.S. citizenship for lying about COVID-19 loan fraud

A federal judge has revoked the citizenship of a South Florida man convicted of stealing millions from a federal COVID-19 loan program and lying about the theft on his naturalization form.

Joff Stenn Wroy Philossaint, 35, was sentenced to more than four years in prison for his crimes. But a wrinkle in U.S. immigration law allows the government to revoke the citizenship of people who were committing crimes at the time they applied for naturalization — even if they had not yet been arrested or convicted.

Philossaint pleaded guilty to loan-fraud charges in 2022, but he went to trial on an additional charge of obtaining his U.S. citizenship by fraud. A Fort Lauderdale federal jury convicted him of that charge the following year. U.S. District Judge Rodney Smith revoked his naturalization status last month, so as a convicted foreign national he now faces deportation to his native Haiti after he completes his prison term.

“This defendant built his path to citizenship on false statements while stealing millions from programs meant to keep small businesses alive during the pandemic,” U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones, of the Southern District of Florida, said in a statement.

Philossaint pleaded guilty to helping about a dozen South Florida businesses apply for more than $3 million in phony loans under the federal Paycheck Protection Program meant to help companies pay for their employees and other overhead costs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Philossaint also admitted that the network of companies received $2 million in PPP loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration, according to court records. And he admitted that he collected a 10% commission from five other defendants charged in his indictment, records show.

But another charge — whether he had lied on a naturalization form about his criminal history while his citizenship was pending — went before a Fort Lauderdale federal court jury. According to trial evidence, Philossaint applied to become a U.S. citizen in April 2020. While that application was pending, prosecutors said Philossaint orchestrated his COVID-19 loan scheme in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.

On Dec. 15, 2020, a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officer interviewed Philossaint about his naturalization application. During the interview, Philossaint “falsely stated” that he had never committed a crime for which he had not been arrested and that he had never made misrepresentations to receive a public benefit such as the PPP loans in the United States, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Philossaint won approval to become a naturalized U.S. citizen based on these “false representations,” the office said.

This story was originally published March 18, 2026 at 5:16 PM.