A 37-year-old Bourbonnais woman was sentenced to one-year in federal prison Tuesday for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering.

Octavia Renee Murphy was also ordered to serve a two-year term of supervised release following her imprisonment and to pay $169,949.97 in restitution to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Central District of Illinois.

On Jan. 27, 2026, Murphy pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Colleen R. Lawless in Springfield, to conspiring with others to defraud the SBA by submitting false applications for pandemic era relief, namely, Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) advances and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, according to the release. Murphy admitted recruiting relatives, co-workers, and friends to file fraudulent applications for EIDL advances and PPP loans falsely claiming that they operated small businesses prior to and during the pandemic.

Murphy admitted that, when those applications were successful, those individuals paid kickbacks to her out of the fraud proceeds. She further admitted that she filed false PPP loan forgiveness applications for those same individuals, as well as attempted to disguise and conceal the PPP loan that she personally received by transferring the money to another account and falsely claiming it was for “payroll,” according to the release.

At the sentencing hearing, the government presented evidence establishing that Murphy was the leader and organizer of a 14-defendant conspiracy that defrauded the SBA of $169.949.97 by submitting false EIDL advance and PPP loan applications, according to the release. The government also established that Murphy was gainfully employed by the State of Illinois at the Shapiro Developmental Center in Kankakee, at the time of her fraud and was motivated by greed, not any financial need.

According to the release, during the hearing, Judge Lawless rejected Murphy’s request for a minimum sentence of one day of imprisonment, stating that she could not ignore that Murphy was the leader of this large conspiracy to defraud the SBA and that Murphy’s conduct warranted a sentence of imprisonment. Murphy will remain on bond pending reporting to the Bureau of Prisons at a later date to serve her sentence.