North Dakota Woman Gets 4 to 10 Years for Stealing $131,000 in COVID Education Grants, Routing Money to Family Businesses

A Nonprofit That Served No Children

In October 2021, the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction handed out nearly $2 million through its Out of School Time program — federal pandemic-relief money meant to help kids who fell behind during COVID-19 school closures. Faith Shields-Dixon's nonprofit, Faith4Hope, was one of the top recipients of that pot, receiving a three-year grant totaling $350,000, according to Civic Intelligence.

State investigators grew suspicious. The Department of Public Instruction visited Faith4Hope's office eight times during posted operating hours. Every single time, the office was closed and, according to court documents reviewed by InForum, no children were present.

Where the Money Actually Went

Prosecutors charged that between February 3, 2022 and April 10, 2023, Shields-Dixon routed grant funds to businesses owned or run by relatives. Her then-husband's food stand received money; he later admitted in a separate guilty plea that none of it went toward the culinary classes for children he had promised the state. Her brother's music and production company received funds. Her sister-in-law's dance studio received funds.

Assistant attorney general Jeremy Ensrud demonstrated at trial that some of the grant money was spent on Shields-Dixon's own day-to-day living expenses. The North Dakota Attorney General's office put the total misappropriated amount at $131,050 before the Department of Public Instruction cut off further payments, according to Civic Intelligence.

Not everything was fraudulent. Ensrud told InForum that Shields-Dixon's other family members — those not connected to her former husband's food stand — genuinely did spend their portions on programming for children.

The Defense Position

Shields-Dixon's lawyers argued she disbursed the money in good faith, intending the subcontracted businesses to serve children despite the obvious conflicts of interest involved in directing public funds to immediate family members. Grant programs often rely on networks of community organizations, and a nonprofit leader channeling resources to trusted local operators is not inherently criminal. The conflicts of interest alone do not establish theft.

What undermined that defense, according to Ensrud's presentation at trial, was the combination of funds spent directly on her own living expenses, the repeated finding of no children or programming at Faith4Hope's offices, and her ex-husband's own admission that the food stand grant never produced the promised culinary instruction.

A Burleigh County jury deliberated for roughly three hours before returning guilty verdicts on all five felony counts on June 12, 2026, according to Civic Intelligence.

The Plea Deal She Walked Away From

Shields-Dixon accepted a plea deal last October that would have sent her to prison for four to eleven months. She then backed out, citing bad legal advice. Judge Bobbi Weiler, following prosecutors' recommendation, sentenced her to four to ten years, conditioned on supervised probation after release, according to Civic Intelligence.

North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley called the scheme "smoke-screening to try to hide the purpose for which they were taking these grant dollars."

COVID Fraud: Still Being Counted

The Dixon case is a single thread in what was a much larger grant distribution. The Out of School Time program alone pushed out nearly $2 million in North Dakota. That figure is a rounding error relative to the federal pandemic spending that flowed through state agencies nationwide between 2020 and 2023, much of it with minimal oversight infrastructure built around it.

OpenTheBooks.com, the forensic spending-transparency organization that flagged this case through its "Waste of the Day" series, has documented similar patterns across multiple states. RealClearInvestigations published the case on July 3, 2026, as part of that ongoing audit effort.

Shields-Dixon's ex-husband has already pleaded guilty to his own theft charge. As of July 5, 2026, it remains unclear whether any civil recovery action will be pursued against Faith4Hope or its principals to recoup the $131,050, or whether that money is simply gone.