ST. LOUIS – A former reality show cast member of "Basketball Wives LA" and St. Louis area radio personality was sentenced to four years in federal prison Tuesday following guilty pleas in May tied to tax fraud, bank fraud, insurance fraud and three separate pandemic fraud schemes.

Brittish “Cierrah” Williams, 33, pleaded guilty to five counts of misuse of a Social Security number, four counts of bank fraud, three counts of making false statements to the IRS and three counts of wire fraud.

What You Need To Know

  • Brittish "Cierrah" Williams appeared on the reality show "Basketball Wives LA" and was a morning show personality on 104.1 in St. Louis

  • She entered guilty pleas in May that admitted to under-reporting her income on multiple years of tax returns. She also had been accused of submitting false information on disasster loan applications and using more than $140,000 from the loans to fund her personal lifestyle

  • Williams was sentenced to four years in prison, five years of supervised release and must repay $564,069 in restitution

  • She had previously asked the court for an 18-month sentence

U.S. District Court judge Henry Autrey also sentenced Williams Tuesday to five years supervised release after she leaves prison and ordered her to pay $564,069 in restitution.

Williams had asked the court to consider an 18-month sentence.

"Ms. Williams’s conduct in this case was harmful and immoral. Undoubtedly, these fraud charges are serious offenses and this Court must promote respect for the law through its sentence. But respect for the law is not the same thing as fear of the law. A law is respected when it is tempered by mercy. Lengthy prison sentences may promote fear of the law but they do not necessarily promote respect. When a defendant with a non-violent offense and insignificant criminal background accepts responsibility for what she has done and receives a sentence that takes into account more than just the rote numbers, that sentence demonstrates that the justice system is indeed reasonable. And that, above all things, promotes respect for the law," her attorney Beau Brindley argued in a September court filing. 

Williams admitted under-reporting her income on tax returns for 2017-2019 and falsely claiming a niece and nephew as dependents.

She was accused of using Social Security numbers not assigned to her to open accounts with credit card companies and banks, which resulted in losses to those creditors when they weren’t repaid.

Williams, who was a part of the Hot Team Morning Show on Hot 104.1, used those Social Security numbers to open bank accounts, then deposited thousands of dollars’ worth of checks taken from other peoples’ accounts without their knowledge and withdrew the money, prosecutors said.

Williams admitted submitting nine applications for Economic Injury Disaster Loans, four applications for the Paycheck Protection Program and one application to a rent relief program in California.

The disaster loan applications contained false information about business income and payroll, as well as her criminal history. According to her plea agreement, Williams said she used the $144,400 in loans that resulted from two of the applications to fund her personal lifestyle.

“The defendant launched a scheme that led to a variety of financial crimes including tax fraud, bank fraud, COVID loan fraud and identity theft,” IRS Criminal Investigation (CI) Special Agent in Charge Thomas F. Murdock said in a news release. “Ms. Williams displayed a blatant disregard for the victims of her deceit. Financial crimes of this magnitude deserve to be punished to the fullest extent of the law.”

“Brittish Williams was getting paid to portray her celebrity lifestyle on “Basketball Wives” when in fact she was a typical fraudster,” Special Agent in Charge Jay Greenberg of the FBI St. Louis Division said in the same statement. “After today’s sentencing, her reality is now a life of a felon.”