DAs take aim at fraud by prisoners
In early December, nine county district attorneys implored Gov. Gavin Newsom for more help ferreting out fraud.
That California’s state prisons and county jails may harbor fraudsters and thieves should probably not shock or surprise. But the revelation that inmates have bled hundreds of millions of dollars from state coffers via fake unemployment claims while still behind bars seems to have done just that.
In early December, nine county district attorneys implored Gov. Gavin Newsom for more help ferreting out fraud, a task made tougher by rules that can prevent the right hand from knowing what the left hand is doing. Among their most fervent requests: allow expedited cross- matching of such inmate data as names, Social Security numbers and birth dates with unemployment claims filed with the California Employment Development Department.
“It is our understanding from several state agencies that this information has not been proactively shared with EDD ( an agency with law enforcement investigatory powers) under the premise that there is some statutory prohibition to this data sharing,” wrote the DAs, including Riverside County District Attorney Michael Hestrin.
That’s wrong, they said: The law authorizes the EDD to release information to federal, state or local agencies to verify or determine the eligibility or entitlement of an applicant.
“We believe, and the emerging data supports, that this is an urgent matter with an unprecedented scale of fraud that is bilking the State of California and its people of desperately needed financial resources,” the letter states.
State officials learned of the fraud scheme in the state prison system in August, but it continued nonetheless, the district attorneys said. They weren’t tipped off by state officials, but by federal investigators.
The data vital for matching, from the California Department of Corrections and EDD, didn’t get to a statewide task force until November. Within a matter of days, it had reviewed the data “and found the staggering scope of the fraud,” the DAs wrote. “We also received unverified information that EDD has distributed at least $ 1 billion to out- of- state claimants. We are deeply concerned that the fraud will continue to grow exponentially.”
They asked that “urgency legislation” be immediately introduced to allow the future cross- matching of data between correctional facilities and the EDD.
“With such legislation, California will align with the overwhelming number of states that have done cross- matching for years,” they wrote.
A task force convened by Newsom, and led by the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, is coordinating daily with local, state and federal law enforcement “and has already made important progress to resolve challenges and move the investigative efforts ? forward,” spokesman Brian Ferguson said by email. “We remain laser- focused on coordinating with our partners in the district attorney’s offices to root out fraud and criminal activity within the unemployment system and hold those responsible accountable.”