ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — Federal prosecutors said a Virginia man has been sentenced to a year in prison and two years of supervised release for defrauding the COVID-19 relief program.

The U.S. Department of Justice said in a news release Friday that 43-year-old Tarik Jaafar, of Ashburn, conspired with his wife, Monika Magdalena Jaworska, to create four shell companies that actually conducted no business and existed only to pull off the scheme.

From April 13 to May 6, Jaafar and his wife applied for 18 separate Paycheck Protection Plan loans in the name of the four shell companies valued at approximately $6.6 million, saying they needed the loans to pay their employees’ salaries.

Jaafar pleaded guilty to the scheme in August. He and Jaworska were arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport on June 20 as they were about to flee to Poland.