BATON ROUGE — A Denham Springs postal employee pleaded guilty Thursday to defrauding COVID-19 relief programs.

A federal judge found 40-year-old Myaika Gross guilty of applying for Pandemic Unemployment benefits in five different states — California, Kansas, Indiana, Colorado and Louisiana.

She also claimed she worked in each state and was laid off for COVID-19-related reasons.

During her time working for the United States Postal Service from May 2020 to June 2021, Gross applied for and received a Paycheck Protection Program loan using fraudulent information. In total, Gross ended up receiving $65,928 in pandemic funds she was not entitled.