A former Virginia state lawmaker who gained national attention in 2019 for interrupting President Donald Trump’s Jamestown speech has been sentenced [1] after admitting to fraudulently obtaining a COVID-19 relief loan for his dental practice.
Ibraheem Samirah, 34, a former Democratic member of the Virginia House of Delegates, received a sentence of three years of probation and was ordered to pay $88,000 in restitution.
The sentence followed his guilty plea to one count of wire fraud, according to a Washington Post report published Tuesday.
BREAKING: Virginia Democrat Ibraheem Samirah who heckled Trump speech, sentenced for COVID fraud scheme. pic.twitter.com/tL3aYYBny9 [2]
— Leading Report (@LeadingReport) November 14, 2025 [3]
The case stemmed from a Paycheck Protection Program loan Samirah secured in May 2020.
Prosecutors said he received approximately $83,000 for his dental practice in Fairfax County.
In August 2021, he applied to have the loan forgiven, a process that required the funds to be used for eligible expenses such as payroll, rent, or mortgage payments.
According to court filings, Samirah stated in his application that the PPP funds would be used to pay four workers at the practice.
Investigators later found that the business had no payroll employees.
Documents showed the practice did not even have an active financial account capable of issuing payroll until a few days before the loan application was submitted.
Prosecutors said Samirah fabricated payroll and tax records to obtain the federal funds.
After the loan was approved, the money was routed into bank accounts under the names of the purported employees and then transferred into Samirah’s personal account.
“The defendant was stealing federal tax dollars at the same time he was deciding how to spend Virginia tax dollars,” prosecutors wrote in their filing.
Samirah, who served in the General Assembly from 2019 to 2022, previously drew attention when he interrupted President Trump’s speech at the Jamestown Settlement in July 2019.
During the address, he stood and held signs that read “Deport hate” and “reunite my family.”
Speaking to the Washington Post about the fraud case, Samirah said he had a “mistaken understanding of the PPP loan process.”
He also claimed the matter was “weaponized by Donald Trump’s Justice Department.”
According to the report, Samirah told the outlet he planned to use the money to hire new employees to market his dental practice.
However, in the loan application, he certified that the funds would go toward payroll for existing workers.
Samirah said he abandoned plans to hire new staff after he believed the pandemic would last much longer than initially expected. Instead, he used the PPP funds to purchase dental equipment and office furnishings, expenditures that were not authorized under the terms of the program.
Court records referenced by the Washington Post indicate that the fabricated documents and misuse of funds formed the basis of the wire fraud charge.
The three-year probation sentence and restitution order concluded the case, which federal prosecutors handled as part of investigations into fraudulent use of pandemic-era relief programs.