Former Charlotte council member sentenced in COVID fraud case

A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced former Charlotte City Council member Tiawana Brown to 10 months in federal prison for taking part in stealing COVID-19 relief money. 

A judge rejected prosecutors’ request that she get probation instead. Her two daughters, who were charged with her, got probation and four months of house arrest. The three women also must repay $137,280 to the government. 

The case first became public in May 2025, when Brown still held Charlotte’s District 3 seat. A grand jury charged her and her daughters, Tijema Brown and Antoinette Rouse, with lying on COVID loan applications. Prosecutors said the family submitted at least 15 applications for pandemic business loans between 2020 and 2021, using fake tax papers and made-up employee numbers. They took more than $124,000. 

They spent much of it on themselves. Records say Brown used loan money, including funds that went into the bank account of her nonprofit, Beauty After the Bars, on Louis Vuitton products, lavish items, and a $15,000 birthday party for Tiawana. The party included a rented throne and a horse-drawn carriage. 

After the indictment, Brown held a news conference, refused to resign, said she would run again, and called the case a political attack. She also said she had already paid the loans back on her own. 

Brown pleaded guilty in February. Prosecutors said they would not ask for prison time. 

US District Judge Kenneth Bell sentenced her to 10 months, at the high end of the recommended range. He called the birthday-party spending “frivolous beyond measure.” He was blunt about how she handled the charges while she was still in office. He told her she knew she was guilty and still told Charlotte the case was a political hit. 

“You divided this city needlessly, selfishly,” Bell said. He added that she “took a bad thing and made it worse.” 

Later Tuesday night, Brown took to Facebook Live to slam the judge’s decision. 

“That judge did some bullsh*t in court today,” Brown said in the video. “I don’t care what y’all say. You gotta be there to see it. We agreed to a plea agreement. Yes, the judge has the ability to make the call and do whatever you want to do but this judge had it out for me, specifically. Yes I said it.” 

Brown doubled down on Bell having it out for her. 

“He’s talking about how I carry myself on social media, how I fight for people, what I’m saying, how I interview,” said Brown. “Yes, when I first got the case, I said not guilty. You have to look at the evidence. You have to look at what’s going against you and then you make a decision to make a plea. But this is why people do not trust the United States government and the FBI. They are so dirty and when I tell you I fight for people every day and today I got to experience it for myself.” 

Brown lost her 2025 primary to Joi Mayo and left office when her term ended. She never resigned after the charges. This was her second federal fraud case. She served prison time in the 1990s for student-loan fraud and gave birth to one of her daughters there. In 2023 she became the first former inmate elected to Charlotte City Council. 

“I accept the responsibility,” she said in the Tuesday night video. “I’m not saying I’m innocent, but what happened to me in court today should have never happened.”

This story was first published by The Carolina Journal.

Read more details from the Department of Justice.