The Philadelphia woman who drew widespread attention for an elaborate princess-themed prom send-off has been jailed after fraudulently securing more than $500,000 through a federal COVID-19 relief program.
Treva Harris, 50, went viral in 2024 after staging an extravagant Cinderella-themed prom send-off for her daughter, Azar.
Harris spent $27,000 transforming a parking lot on Philadelphia’s Lancaster Avenue into a Cinderella castle setting. The elaborate display featured 20-foot trees with blue leaves, carpeting covering the entire lot, a gilded carriage and a reflective stage.
“When we become adults, life gets super hard,” Harris told The Philadelphia Inquirer at the time. “I do what I can for [my kids] while they’re younger. When they get older, I don’t have so much control over their happiness. I have a little bit of control now. So I do everything in my power to make sure that my kids are happy,” she added.
The send-off featured a two-story castle that took two months to construct, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. Inside, a video projection depicted Harris as a fairy godmother transforming Azar’s torn clothes into a custom gown. The teenager then appeared from behind the screen in front of her classmates.
Authorities did not specifically link the lavish prom event to the alleged fraud. However, court filings said Harris used money from the relief disbursements for personal expenses, including luxury goods and vacations.
According to the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Harris applied for and received funds through multiple federal programs created to support small businesses during the pandemic.
The US Small Business Administration launched the COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) and the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) in March 2020. The programs provided loans to help small businesses cover payroll, utilities, mortgage interest and rent as they struggled through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Treva Harris has been sentenced to one year in jail for using fraudulent documents to obtain COVID-19 relief funds.
Harris organized a $27,000 Cinderella-themed prom send-off for her daughter, turning a Philadelphia parking lot into a carpeted setting with a reflective stage and a two-story castle.
Treva Harris arranged a custom gown and a specially built Cinderella castle for her daughter’s high school prom send-off in 2024.
In April 2020, Harris applied for an EIDL loan for the childcare business she operated at the time, the Child Prodigy Education Center in Philadelphia.
She correctly reported that the business had three employees and $113,420 in costs of goods sold, including payroll expenses. Harris received $514,900 in disbursements.
Two months later, however, Harris submitted a separate PPP application for the same business, according to the US Attorney’s Office in Pennsylvania. Officials said she dramatically overstated the company’s employee count and monthly payroll on the IRS forms.
The fraudulent IRS documents claimed that Child Prodigy had paid $2,568,000 to 27 employees in 2019, officials said.
Based on this application, Celtic Bank issued a wire transfer of $535,000 into a Child Prodigy bank account which Harris controlled.
The money was then used on ‘personal and unauthorized expenses,’ such as transfers to her boyfriend, large cash withdrawals, and vacations, court filings stated.
She was charged by information last year and pleaded guilty in October to one count of bank fraud, waiving prosecution by indictment.
Two days before her sentencing hearing last week, Harris’ attorney Troy A Archie submitted a letter to the judge to inform the court of ‘several meaningful developments’ the woman has made since the original complaint was filed.
Treva Harris, 50, was sentenced to a year in jail after it was discovered that she fabricated information on the documents she submitted to a federal relief program during the pandemic
Harris first received media attention in 2024 after she organized a $27,000 Cinderella-themed prom send-off for her teenage daughter, which was picked up by abc7
Although officials did not make any explicit mentions of the extravagant prom send-off in the court filings, it was stated that Harris ‘misspent’ the PPP loan on personal matters
‘Since the original submission, Ms. Harris has continued to expand legitimate business operations, obtain additional professional qualifications, pursue further education, and continue her community work,’ the letter stated.
The letter provided names of longtime friends, fellow business owners and community members who can vouch for Harris’ character.
On September 10, Judge John F Murphy ruled that Harris, of Medford, New Jersey, will serve a year in jail followed by three years of supervised release, and has been ordered to pay back the $535,000 she received, as well as a $7,500 fine and a $100 special assessment, according to Eastern District of Pennsylvania’s US Attorney’s Office.
