An Enfield man charged in a COVID rental scheme had his case dismissed, according to a criminal order of dismissal filed in the federal court record.

Arkino Williams joins John Lee Bass Jr. as the only two defendants in the case to have their indictments dismissed.

Court documents filed in the case of the United States versus Joe Lewis Jefferson do not give an explanation on why the cases of Williams and Bass were dismissed.

The attorney representing Williams has not responded to a request for comment Monday, the day Williams had originally been scheduled for arraignment.

Instead court records show that on March 19 District Judge James C. Dever III dismissed the indictment against Williams with prejudice.

Williams had been charged with four counts of mail fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud in the scheme which was led by Jefferson, a Nashville man.

A Roanoke Rapids man, Timothy Kelvin Harvey, was sentenced to 18 months last September while Jefferson was sentenced to 48 months in January. Harvey pleaded guilty to one of the eight counts against him — a count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud. Jefferson pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and one count of failure to file a tax return.  

The dismissal of the Williams case means that all indictments have been disposed of in court.

According to information presented in court, Jefferson recruited others to falsely pose as landlords for properties located in eastern North Carolina.  

In the names of these nominee landlords, Jefferson prepared and submitted fraudulent North Carolina Housing Opportunities and Prevention of Evictions — NC HOPE — loan applications for emergency rental assistance.  

When the applications were approved, NC HOPE mailed checks to addresses controlled by Jefferson. Jefferson traveled with the nominee landlords to area banks to negotiate the checks and split the proceeds.  

Jefferson and his co-conspirators were responsible for the submission of at least 44 fraudulent applications for rental assistance, resulting in the disbursement of approximately $279,000.

The NC HOPE Program administered federal COVID-19 relief funds and provided emergency rental assistance to North Carolina renters who faced eviction and homelessness during the pandemic.  

The program allowed renters to submit an online application to apply for rental assistance.  

If approved, the program paid the tenant’s rent, in checks sent directly to the landlord, for up to 15 months of overdue or future rent payments.