Stanislaus County mother and son sentenced for $150K unemployment fraud scheme
A Modesto man and his mother, a Turlock resident, were sentenced to federal prison for their roles in a scheme to steal more than $150,000 in pandemic-related unemployment benefits using the identities of state prison inmates, authorities said.
Jaime Ornelas, 27, was sentenced Friday to three years and one month in prison and ordered to pay $150,000 in restitution, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California. His mother and co-defendant, Misty Ornelas, 48, was previously sentenced on June 6 to 18 months in prison.
Federal prosecutors said the fraud began in June 2020, when Jaime Ornelas, then incarcerated at High Desert State Prison in Lassen County, collaborated with his mother to file fraudulent unemployment insurance claims with the California Employment Development Department (EDD). Jaime allegedly provided personally identifiable information of other inmates, which Misty then used to submit false claims.
The applications misrepresented the eligibility of the inmates, including false information that they had recently lost work due to the COVID-19 pandemic, prosecutors said.
The scheme netted more than $150,000 in stolen benefits, according to the DOJ.
The case was investigated by the FBI and EDD. It was part of the California COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Strike Force, a statewide initiative to prosecute large-scale pandemic relief fraud.
