Money intended to help people: Five things to know about pandemic unemployment fraud
A Modesto woman was convicted of working with her son in a scheme to use inmate names to obtain money meant to help people during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here are five things to know about fraud schemes targeting pandemic relief, which are not limited to just the crimes involving prison inmates.
How much money was stolen?
Roughly $20 million, according to special counsel McGregor Scott in a December interview with McClatchy. Scott was brought on by the state’s embattled unemployment agency in July with the mammoth challenge of coordinating investigations into fraud schemes targeting pandemic relief.
How much could a fraudulent claim yield?
According to a news release from the Department of Justice, each stimulus check amounted to as much as $1,200 per adult and $500 per qualifying child.
How did the scheme work in prison?
At one site, the Maguire Correctional Center in Redwood City, court records showed how the process worked. A handful of inmates contacted friends and relatives on the outside, supplied them with Social Security numbers and other information, and persuaded them to file for pandemic relief on behalf of 30 different inmates, according to a Sacramento Bee story. The outsiders had the unemployment payments — in the form of Bank of America debit cards issued by EDD — mailed to them.
Were high-profile inmates involved?
Although names like Scott Peterson and Cary Stayner appeared on the list of those who received benefits, that doesn’t mean they filed for them. San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe, who serves on the task force investigating the fraud, told The Bee in 2020 that all authorities know now is Peterson’s and other death row inmates’ names were used and not whether they participated in the fraud. Peterson’s attorney said he is a victim of the fraud.
Other notorious beneficiaries allegedly involved in the unemployment scam included Wayne Ford, who confessed to at least four Northern California murders in 1997 and 1998; Isauro Aguirre, who tortured and murdered his girlfriend’s 8-year-old son in Palmdale in 1999; and Royal Clark, who was sentenced to death for strangling a 14-year-old Fresno girl in 1995, authorities said in a Sacramento Bee article.
What happens next?
The battle against unemployment insurance scams got help from President Joe Biden in his State of the Union address last week. “We’re going after the criminals who stole billions in relief money meant for small business and millions of Americans. And tonight, I’m announcing that the Justice Department will soon name a chief prosecutor for pandemic fraud,” the president said.