WASHINGTON — Charges were unsealed Wednesday against eight individuals for conspiring to defraud the Georgia Department of Labor of tens of millions of dollars in federal funds intended for unemployment benefits.
According to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office Middle District of Georgia, seven defendants have been indicted and one defendant has already pleaded guilty for her role in the scheme.
According to court documents, the defendants and others allegedly caused more than 5,000 fraudulent unemployment insurance (UI) claims to be filed with the Georgia Department of Labor (GaDOL), resulting in at least $30 million in stolen benefits meant to assist unemployed individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The release says they created fake employers and lists of supposed employees using stolen personal information from thousands of identity theft victims and filed fraudulent unemployment insurance claims on the GaDOL website.
The defendants allegedly stole the information from a variety of sources, including by paying a defendant, an employee of an Atlanta-area health care and hospital network, to unlawfully obtain patients’ info from the hospital’s databases. The defendants also allegedly caused the stolen UI funds to be disbursed via prepaid debit cards mailed to addresses of their choice, many of which were in and around Cordele and Vienna.
Seven defendants are each charged by indictment with conspiracy to commit mail fraud, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. Two are also charged with aggravated identity theft, which carries a mandatory two-year prison sentence that must be imposed consecutively with any other sentence. One defendant is also charged with money laundering, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
The defendant who was paid to steal information was charged by criminal information with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and pleaded guilty to this offense on Nov. 15. According to her plea agreement, she unlawfully used her employer’s patient databases to steal information for the unemployment fraud scheme in exchange for payments via Chime, Venmo, and CashApp. She unlawfully accessed at least 1,600 Atlanta-area patients’ PII during the conspiracy. The woman faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. A sentencing date has not been scheduled.
A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
If you have any information, you are asked to call the Fraud Section’s Victim Witness Unit toll-free at (888) 549-3945.
