Memphis Woman Sentenced to 8 Years for Defrauding the VA of Over $2.9 Million in GI Bill Funds
On February 2, 2026, a federal court in Memphis, in Shelby County, Tennessee, sentenced Memphis resident Quannah Fields Harris, 53, to eight years in federal prison for defrauding the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) out of over $2.9 million. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Tennessee announced the sentence.
U.S. District Judge John T. Fowlkes, Jr. sentenced Harris to 96 months in prison and ordered her to pay $2,905,853.09 in restitution to the VA for conspiring to defraud the United States and committing wire fraud. Harris was convicted by a federal jury in October 2025.
According to the facts presented at trial and sentencing, Harris owned the Last Minute Cuts School of Barbering and Cosmetology at 2195 South Third Street in Memphis from 2014 to 2019. She billed the VA for dozens of veterans she enrolled as students who attended few classes, if any, received no instruction, took no tests or exams, and never obtained a state barbering or cosmetology license; the school was, in reality, a sham. Many of the veterans never set foot in the school again after the day she enrolled them, yet Harris billed the VA for years thereafter for their purported attendance. The GI Bill is a federal program administered by the VA to help veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces learn vocational skills.
U.S. Attorney D. Michael Dunavant said veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces deserve honor and respect and that his office will always protect them, adding that victimizing the VA harms veterans and deserves significant punishment. Nate Landkammer, Special Agent in Charge of the VA Office of Inspector General's Mid-Atlantic Field Office, said the sentence demonstrates that the VA OIG and its law enforcement partners will aggressively pursue those who defraud the VA. Donald 'Trey' Eakins, Special Agent in Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation's Charlotte Field Office, said the defendant schemed to defraud the government, got caught, and is now being held accountable.
The case was investigated by the VA Office of Inspector General and IRS Criminal Investigation, with assistance from the Veterans Benefits Administration's Education Service. Assistant U.S. Attorney Tony Arvin prosecuted the case. There is no parole in the federal system.
Source: U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Tennessee
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于美国华盛顿的美国退伍军人事务部总部大楼正面（资料照片）。G. Edward Johnson 摄，CC BY 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The front of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs headquarters building in Washington, D.C. (file photo). Photo by G. Edward Johnson, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
